Australia warns of malicious websites after cyber blackout

SYDNEY: Australia’s cyber intelligence agency said on Saturday that “malicious websites and unofficial code” were being posted online supposedly to aid recovery from Friday’s global digital outage, which hit media, retailers, banks and airlines.

Australia was one of many countries affected by the outage that wreaked havoc around the world after 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 published claiming to help entities recover from the widespread disruptions caused by the CrowdStrike technical incident.”

On its website, the agency said its cybersecurity center “strongly recommends that all consumers 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 vigilant against potential scams and phishing attempts.”

On Friday, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the country’s largest bank, suffered a service outage, saying some customers were unable to transfer money. National carrier Qantas and Sydney Airport reported that planes were delayed but were still flying.

Premier Anthony Albanese said late Friday there had been no impact on critical infrastructure, government services or emergency telephone systems.

CrowdStrike, which previously had a market capitalization of approximately $83 billion, is a major cybersecurity provider, with nearly 30,000 subscribers worldwide.