A widespread technical failure disrupted IT systems throughout Australia and New Zealand on Friday, leading to travel disruptions, impeding television transmissions, and shutting down supermarket operations.
Australia's National Cyber Security Coordinator confirmed that the 'large-scale technical outage' was due to a problem with a 'third-party software platform', dispelling early concerns about a cyber-attack. Images circulating online depicted lengthy lines at Sydney Airport, which informed AFP that certain airline operations and terminal services were compromised.
'Flights are currently arriving and departing, however there may be some delays throughout the evening,' a Sydney Airport spokesperson stated. 'We have activated our contingency plans with our airline partners and deployed additional staff to our terminals to assist passengers.'
Christchurch International Airport in New Zealand also reported 'IT issues across a number of our systems which may affect flight arrivals and departures.' The New Zealand government noted that banks and the computer network within the country's parliament were also impacted.
Australia's national broadcaster, ABC, reported that its systems had suffered a 'major' malfunction, disrupting some television and radio broadcasts. Some self-checkout terminals at one of Australia's largest supermarket chains displayed blue error messages, rendering them inoperable.
Telecommunications giant Telstra disclosed that some of its systems were affected, potentially impacting emergency services that rely on its network. Telstra attributed the issue to 'global issues' affecting software from Microsoft and American cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike. Neither Microsoft nor Crowdstrike could be immediately contacted for comment.
Jill Slay, a cybersecurity researcher at the University of South Australia, suggested that the global impact of these outages could be 'enormous.'
