F1 team battle IT outage in branded CrowdStrike t-shirts

Written by News.com on July 22, 2024. Posted in Current News

The picture was widely shared on Twitter amid the devastating outage which has affected airports, hospitals, supermarkets and banks around the world.

The IT crisis has been blamed on CrowdStrike, which issued antivirus technology causing computer systems to crash.

About 3pm on Friday, computers across Australia began shutting down with multiple workers reporting issues at multiple different businesses.

The issue comes from a “bluescreen error” which is a result of a Crowdstrike outage, with servers and devices getting stuck in “boot loops”.

The IT issue has affected multiple countries including New Zealand, Japan, India, the US and the United Kingdom.

Multiple businesses have been affected including media organisations such as News Corp’s global operations, the ABC, SBS, Channel 7, Channel 9, and Network 10.

But it has also hit EFTPOS services, airlines, banks and supermarkets, throwing the entire nation into chaos.

It is also affecting multiple major institutions, with crowd-sourced website Downdetector listing outages for Foxtel, NAB, Bendigo Bank, Suncorp Bank, Commonwealth Bank, Me Bank and more.

Follow below for live updates.

CrowdStrike CEO speaks out

The CEO of CrowdStrike George Kurtz apologised for wreaking havoc on Friday – but couldn’t give a timeline for when everything would return to normal.

Mr Kurtz addressed the major tech outage after his company deployed a faulty software update to computers overnight that grounded flights, knocked banks offline and media outlets off the air.

“We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this,” he said in an appearance on NBC’s Today show.

“It wasn’t a cyber attack, it was related to this content update.”

At one point, Kurtz choked up and had to pause to sip water before explaining the cause of the outage.

“It wasn’t a cyberattack, it was related to this content update,” he said.

“The system was sent an update, and that update had a software bug in it and caused an issue with the Microsoft operating system.”

Formula One team battle IT outage wearing CrowdStrike t-shirts

Mercedes were forced to try and resolve IT issues caused by their sponsor Crowdstrike on Thursday.

Staff could be seen looking at the blue screen of death before practice in Hungaroring, Hungary.

A Mercedes spokesperson said the team is manually addressing the problem on each computer it uses and expects said that it will be able to operate as normal during today’s practice sessions.

The problem is has also affected machines being used for Mercedes’ engine customers McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams.

“We are working closely with our partners at CrowdStrike to mitigate any impact,” Mercedes’ spokesperson confirmed.

This picture of the Mercedes F1 team battling an IT outage was shared on Twitter.

Aussie at the centre of outage 

The global president of CrowdStrike – which is being blamed for the mass outage – is a Melbourne man worth $225 million.

Mike Sentonas became president of CrowdStrike in 2023 after joining the company in 2016.

Michael Sentonas serves as President and is responsible for CrowdStrike’s product and go-to-market functions, including its sales, marketing, product & engineering, threat intelligence, privacy & policy, corporate development, corporate strategy and CTO teams.

On the company’s website, Mr Sentonas is described as a 20-plus-year cybersecurity veteran.

“Mr Sentonas is an active public authority on security issues and the evolving threat landscape and is regularly featured as a speaker at key industry events, an expert source in the media, and a trusted advisor to governments and company boards, alike,” his bio states.

Before CrowdStrike, he was the Chief Technology Officer at McAfee.

Reason Aussies were so badly affected by CrowdStrike update

Australians were badly affected by the CrowdStrike update because it was issued in the middle of the night in the US.

Speaking to the ABC Alastair MacGibbon, the chief strategy officer at CyberCX and a former cybersecurity adviser to the prime minister, explained that it was bad timing for Australia.

All Jetstar flights cancelled until 2am

All Jetstar flights in Australia and New Zealand have been cancelled until 2am on Saturday.

“The IT outage is impacting multiple Jetstar systems, including the system we use to contact customers and we sincerely apologise for the frustration this is causing,” a spokesperson for the airline said.

“Our teams are working on recovery options and we will contact customers with updates as soon as our systems are back online.”

Qantas tells passengers to ‘Google’ flights

One passenger took to X on Friday so say that frustrated airport staff had told them to Google their flights for more information as their IT systems crashed.

Travellers wait in long service lines at the Sydney domestic airport on July 19, 2024. A large-scale outage wrought havoc on IT systems across Australia, with the country’s national broadcaster, its largest international airport, and a major telecommunications company reporting issues. (Photo by Saeed KHAN / AFP)

“Qantas (is) telling passengers to Google their flight to find out when it leaves and at what gate because everything is down,” the passenger wrote on X.

Several Australian airlines have reported significant issues.

Jetstar has cancelled several domestic flights, while Virgin Australia anticipates delays and possible cancellations.

Qantas is experiencing some delays, though widespread cancellations haven’t been reported.

Melbourne Airport released a statement on social media detailing the varying impacts on airlines.

“Passengers arriving on international flights are being processed normally,” a 6.15pm statement said.

“Passengers departing internationally on Jetstar and Scoot are experiencing ongoing issues, all other international airlines are currently processing passengers normally.

“Domestically, Rex is unaffected, and Qantas and Virgin are slowly processing passengers while Jetstar is experiencing a significant outage.”

Sydney Airport also warned travellers to be prepared for issues. “Flights are currently arriving and departing; however, there may be some delays throughout the evening,” a statement said.

“We have activated our contingency plans and deployed additional staff to our terminals.”

If you’re travelling today make sure you leave plenty of time to come to the airport and check with your airline regarding the status of your flight.”

Crowdstrike says “fix deployed”

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz announced a fix for the IT outage affecting systems globally.

“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted,” Kurtz stated on X.

He clarified, “This is not a security incident or cyberattack.”

“The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed,” he said.

Kurtz advised customers to check the support portal for updates and stated, “We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels.”

“Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.”

A thousand flights cancelled

More than 1000 flights have been cancelled worldwide as a result of the global IT outage.

The number has come from aviation analytics firm Cirium who say the current figure – 1078 – will only grow as delays continue.

In the UK, Friday was set to be the busiest day for flight departures since October 2019, with more 3200 flights scheduled.

Microsoft makes statement 

More than five hours after the outage first being detected by users in Australia, Microsoft has issued a statement.

A Microsoft spokesman said: “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.”

The outage is believed to be connected to CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company that has Microsoft Windows among its clients.

What we know so far 

• A major IT outage is causing tech issues globally.
• Many major airports have cancelled and delayed flights as a result, including LAX, Sydney Airport and Heathrow Airport.
• Supermarkets, telcos, banks, media outlets and public transport systems have been affected across the globe.
• The outage is believed to be caused by a bad software update from US-based cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, which has Microsoft as one of its major clients. The company say they have identified the issue and are working to fix it.
• The company says the problem is not a security incident or cyberattack.
• Cyber security company Tesserent gave a work around for the problem: 1. Boot in Safe Mode 2. Navigate to Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike – Find and delete “C-00000291*.sys” 3. Reboot normally.v

Outage ‘more serious than a cyber attack’: Tech experts

Australian cyber experts have warned a global outage, which is the “biggest the world has ever seen”, could possibly be a “dress rehearsal” for what a cyber terror attack would look like.

Cyber security expert Professor Richard Buckland told the ABC that the attack seemed to be “far more innocuous” than sinister.

“Attacks we have seen in the past at this stage, normally if a criminal was doing, they would have made various demands before issuing an attack,” Professor Buckland said.

“It is playing out how an attack would play out… we could be getting a taste now, even if it is just a dress rehearsal for what a cyber warfare or cyber terror attack would look like.

“This is new for us, it is a good rehearsal.”

The National Cyber Security Coordinator has assured there is no evidence of a hack or cybersecurity incident causing the outage.

Professor Buckland confirmed the outage is “not just a mistake or an error”.

“This is more serious than a cyber attack, really, because it shows our systems aren’t even proofed against randomness.”

Technology analyst from Monash University Nigel Phair said this outage is the “biggest the world” has ever seen.

Government holds emergency meeting 

A snap meeting of emergency authorities has been called to respond to the global tech outage affecting millions of people across Australia.

A government spokesperson confirmed the meeting of the National Emergency Mechanism just before 6pm AEST, with the group set to meet on Friday evening and co-chaired by the National Emergency Management Agency.

The Prime Minister has issued a statement, saying he understands Australians are “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,” Anthony Albanese said.

“There is no impact to critical infrastructure, government services or Triple-0 services at this stage.

“The National Coordination Mechanism has been activated and is meeting now.”

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