There are reports of IT outages impacting institutions across Australia including, news outlets, banks and telecommunications.
Real-time problem and outage monitoring site Downdetector shows several organisations including Commonwealth Bank, Optus and Australia Post are experiencing disruptions.
People have taken to social media platform Reddit from several countries, including India and the Czech Republic, saying they are also suffering from outages.
A spokesperson for NSW Police said systems are impacted but that people are still able to make triple-zero calls.
There are also unconfirmed reports that airports are being disrupted with passengers unable to check in.
The outage appears to be an issue with Crowdstrike, an American cybersecurity technology company.
Professor of cybersecurity at Monash University Nigel Phair said while it is too early to know for sure, the major disruptions appear “non-malicious.”
“Normally you’d think it is a malicious hack, it appears to be an outage or a glitch with the company itself, so non-malicious,” he said.
“There could be major ramifications for cybersecurity, a lot of major organisations rely on Crowdstrike,” he said.
“When a large company like Crowdstrike goes down, they all do.”
This is a developing story and this article will be updated. Follow the latest from SBS News at www.sbs.com.au/news, or on the SBS News app available on iOS or Android.
