Scammers Are Exploiting Global IT Outage, Government Warns

Access to personal information through social media is helping scammers target everyone. (South_agency/Getty Images)

Australians are advised to be very cautious in sharing information online following a recent IT outage as scammers are using the incident to run phishing scams.

A global IT outage on July 19 hit an estimated 8.5 million devices and impacted many companies and services, including banks, airports, supermarkets, and hospitals.

A reboot to fix the interruption was issued by the cyber security firm CrowdStrike whose software update caused the issue but the incident has given rise to other problems.

“Scammers are trying to exploit the outages caused by the CrowdStrike technical incident,” Cyber Security Minister Clare O'Neil wrote in an X post.

The Australian government urges businesses and the community to be vigilant against scams and not engage with suspicious websites, emails, texts, and phone calls.

Ms. O'Neil said attempts to conduct phishing through the incident were reported and advised Australians to follow the protective recommendations provided by ScamWatch.

A checkout terminal hit by IT issues is seen at a Coles store in Canberra, July 19, 2024. Australian banks and media companies have been hit by a major IT outage. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)

Avoiding Getting Scammed

The first step recommended by ScamWatch is to avoid giving money or information to anyone you are unsure about.

Ms. O'Neil said that if an email or text message looks funny or indicates something about CrowdStrike or IT outages people should stop and not put in any details.

“If someone has called you and is suggesting that they’re going to ... talk you through a reboot of your system, I would hang up the phone,” she said.

Ms. O'Neil advised Australians to consider whether any messages they might receive make sense.

“If you are not a CrowdStrike customer, as far as you are aware, you do not need to reboot your systems,” she said.

Assistant Energy Minister Jenny McAllister told Sky News that people should be extremely cautious about sharing information online following the outage.

“People should think very carefully before providing information at all to anybody requesting it. Think about whether this makes sense. If you are in any way uncertain, just stop,” Ms. McAllister said.

What to Do If You Get Scammed

If you respond to a scam or notice unusual activity you should act quickly and protect yourself by contacting your bank and seeking help from IDCARE, Australia and New Zealand’s identity and cyber support service.

After you have protected yourself, people who have received scams can protect other Australians by going online and reporting what has happened to ScamWatch and ReportCyber. The government can then continue to alert people.

“If someone has tried to scam you, they are trying to scam others in all likelihood,” Ms. O'Neil said.

People should also watch out for follow-up scams. Scammers often come back to people they have successfully scammed for more money.

One-third of victims who have been scammed have been scammed more than once. If you’ve lost money to a scam, look out for others, especially someone offering to help retrieve your money.

Scamwatch also recommends speaking to a financial counsellor if the scam has caused debt problems, or if you need to talk to someone reach out to family and friends or phone services such as Beyond Blue.

Updates on the Outage

Ms. McAllister said work was ongoing between the government and sectors affected by the outage to ensure they were functioning again. She said more work needs to be done to confirm that the residual issues arising from this outage are addressed.

“There will be the opportunity in time to reflect on what’s occurred over the last couple of days, whether it exposes vulnerabilities that we are able to address,” Ms. McAllister said.

“The key thing at the moment, and the focus for the government, is restoring services.”

Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor told Sky News that the incident has reinforced concerns about having many internet systems overseen by a few firms.

Mr. Taylor also said businesses and the government have got to get better at dealing with these situations.

“That might mean having redundancy, it might mean ensuring that you’ve got alternatives, it certainly might mean not having one organisation or one company with too much market share,” he said.

Business Losses

Meanwhile, Australian Chamber of Commerce chief executive Andrew McKellar warned that businesses affected by the global IT outage were unlikely to receive money for their productivity losses.

“For many businesses, it’s going to be very difficult to secure direct compensation, but obviously, that’s something that should be looked at,” Mr. McKeller told reporters in Canberra.

“If there are ways to consider how that might be evaluated, then obviously that’s something that should be on the table.”

“It is a reminder, regrettably, for a lot of businesses this is going to be water under the bridge, it’s going to be a learning experience,” he said.

While most companies affected by the outage were operational by Saturday, Mr. McKellar said many small businesses would still have trouble getting their systems up and running on Monday.

“Its timing couldn’t have been worse on a Friday, and in particular, impacting on a Friday afternoon,” he said.

“That’s meant for many businesses, they’re going to have to wait until early next week to put in place the fixes that they need to do.”