SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s cyber intelligence agency said on Saturday that “malicious websites and unofficial code” were being circulated online, claiming to help recovery from Friday’s global digital outage that hit media, retailers , banks and airlines.
Australia was one of many countries affected by the outage that wreaked havoc across the world following a botched CrowdStrike software update.
On Saturday, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) – the country’s cyber intelligence agency – said that “a number of malicious websites and unofficial code are being circulated claiming to help entities recover from the widespread outages caused by the CrowdStrike technical incident.” .
On its website, the agency said its cybersecurity center “strongly encourages all consumers to obtain their technical information and updates only from official CrowdStrike sources.”
Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil said on social media platform X on Saturday that Australians should “be aware of potential scams and phishing attempts”.
Friday’s outage hit the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the country’s largest bank, which said some customers were unable to transfer money. National airline Qantas and Sydney Airport said planes had been delayed but were still flying.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday night there was no impact on critical infrastructure, government services or emergency telephone systems.
CrowdStrike – which previously reached a market capitalization of around $83 billion – is a leading cybersecurity provider with around 30,000 subscribers worldwide.
(Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by Sam Holmes)
