CrowdStrike has informed the Australian government that it is on the verge of deploying an automatic fix following a major global IT outage.
The country's Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil announced that systems should soon be back online, though business groups caution that recovery could take several days.
The outage, which occurred in the afternoon of July 19, was triggered by an update to CrowdStrike's widely used cloud-based software, Falcon.
The update caused a malfunction that disabled systems worldwide, with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) estimating that 8.5 million Windows devices were affected.
O'Neil reported on social media that a meeting of federal and state governments, along with the private sector, was informed by CrowdStrike that an automatic fix is imminent, as is a fix from Microsoft.
The meeting was part of the national coordination mechanism, set up during the Covid-19 pandemic to manage such crises.
Despite progress, O'Neil noted that full recovery could take one to two weeks and advised patience for affected sectors.
CrowdStrike confirmed that the issue had been identified and isolated and emphasized that it was not a cyberattack. Customers were urged to check the company's support portal for updates.
O'Neil also highlighted no impact on critical infrastructure or government services. However, supermarkets are still facing issues, though no food shortages have been reported.
She warned about scammers exploiting the outage, urging Australians to be cautious of fraudulent communications.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimated that some businesses might not resume normal operations until July 22 and highlighted the significant but difficult-to-quantify financial impact of the outage.
