Alastair MacGibbon, the chief strategy officer at CyberCX and a former cybersecurity adviser to the prime minister, said Australia felt the brunt of today’s cyber crash because the faulty CrowdStrike update was issued during the middle of the night in the United States.
“This was done, obviously, when less computers are turned on in America, but given the nature of how these things go, it means that things are on in Australia,” he told the ABC.
Former national cybersecurity chief Alastair MacGibbon.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
MacGibbon said the crash was a reflection of how connected societies are now, not just in Australia, but around the world.
“So when a very important piece of software, has a problem, we’re seeing the really massive impact of it,” he said.
MacGibbon said it was reassuring that it was not a cyberattack.
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“If you’re stuck at a supermarket checkout or you can’t get a plane, sure it’s disappointing. But it’s better to know that it doesn’t seem like a malicious act because that can give more calm to the public.”
The challenge for businesses now was installing the fix to get networks back online.
“What you now need to do is get to each of those computers and pretty much reboot them, and you can’t do it remotely, because when you do it remotely, the security software stops it happening,” he said.
“It’s not a big technical issue. It’s just having a big impact.”