A worldwide cyber crash described as “the largest IT outage in history” brought down computer systems across Australia and parts of the world, crippling airport check-ins, supermarkets and emergency information services.
The outage struck just after 3pm on Friday, triggering delays at airports around the country and world, hampering internet banking systems and forcing laptops across the globe to suddenly shut down.
Cybersecurity expert and founder of the ASafaWeb security analysis firm Troy Hunt said it was “the largest IT outage in history”.
This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it’s actually happened this time,” he said.
The federal government called a snap meeting of emergency authorities, and executives from Telstra, Optus, Coles, Woolworths, Qantas and Virgin on Friday night to respond to the unfolding chaos
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he understood Australians were “concerned about the outage that is unfolding globally and affecting a wide range of services”.
“My government is working closely with the National Cyber Security Coordinator,” he said. “There is no impact to critical infrastructure, government services or triple-zero services at this stage.
NSW Police confirmed triple zero was working, but that police information distribution services had been impacted. Victoria Police said they were able to receive and dispatch calls from triple zero, but some internal systems had been affected by the national outage.
