The Australian government has called an emergency meeting following an unprecedented global technical outage on Friday that impacted numerous sectors, including government agencies, retailers, banks, and airlines.
The outage, traced back to a rogue software update deployed by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, has raised concerns over the overreliance on a single cyber defense service.
The outage caused significant disruptions, grounding flights, interrupting payment systems, and crippling the networks of businesses and organizations that rely on CrowdStrike's services for critical operations.
Major supermarkets, telecommunications providers, transport operators, and energy and water representatives were among those affected and invited to the emergency meeting.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addressed the nation on Friday evening, acknowledging the widespread concern and emphasizing that there is currently no impact on critical infrastructure, government services, or emergency services.
"I understand Australians are concerned about the outage that is unfolding globally and affecting a wide range of services," Albanese said. "There is no impact to critical infrastructure, government services or triple-0 services at this stage."
Albanese also announced that the National Coordination Mechanism had been activated and assured the public that the government is working closely with the National Cyber Security Coordinator to manage the situation.
The emergency meeting aims to address the overreliance on CrowdStrike and discuss strategies to prevent similar incidents in the future. There is likely to be a push for businesses to implement mechanisms that avoid reliance on a single service setup, enhancing resilience against such disruptions.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil confirmed CrowdStrike's attendance at the meeting and reiterated that there is no evidence of a cybersecurity breach.
"We can confirm there is no evidence that this is a cybersecurity incident," O'Neil stated.
A Microsoft spokesman said the issue was caused by a third party update:
"We're aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform. We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming.”
