CrowdStrike Microsoft outage: Fears over pay day for some Aussies as IT systems recover from global tech crash

Australian workers may miss out on paychecks over fears the CrowdStrike outage could impact payroll.

A global IT outage on Friday forced airlines to cancel flights, supermarkets to close their self-service checkouts and TV channels to display “blue screens announcing someone is dying” behind their newsreaders.

The meltdown came after a software upgrade involving the CrowdStrike security software program caused problems with Microsoft applications worldwide.

Graeme Hughes, a lecturer in business and technology at Griffith University, said businesses that rely on CrowdStrike were at additional risk following Friday’s outage.

“There is a risk that employers or banks using CrowdStrike could pause payroll processing on Fridays until systems are up and running again,” he told Daily Mail Australia.

Companies’ payroll systems could be at risk if they don’t have a contingency plan to deal with it.

“It really jeopardizes some fundamental things,” he said.

‘In terms of payroll, it really depends on the individual providers and their technology, some may have issues with it.

‘We know that we will have to wait and see in the coming days.’

Cybersecurity expert Benjamin Britton said online payments are at risk, describing it as a problem that could be more serious than the public realises.

“It’s all about digital payments, which means it could easily be hit by a cyber outage,” he told Daily Mail Australia.

‘Especially if a company’s payments department had systems that were affected by the outage, or if the banks’ systems were down.

“But be aware that the issue runs very deep.”

Australia may be facing its worst payroll disaster since 2010, when a new IBM payroll system malfunctioned in Queensland, leaving thousands of healthcare workers underpaid, overpaid or, in some cases, not paid at all.

Anna Bligh, chief executive of the Australian Banking Association, was Premier of Queensland at the time of IBM’s blunder, which saw her Labor Party lose the 2012 election by a landslide.

But the Australian banking lobby group she now heads said any problems over pay would be limited.

“There have been no major disruptions to payment systems as a result of the CrowdStrike outage, and none are expected,” a spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.

‘The consequences for banks and payment systems are relatively minor. Any disruptions have already been resolved or are being gradually restored.’

Mr Hughes said CrowdStrike was not primarily a payroll program, as the IBM system was more than a decade ago.

But he said it was premature to say there would be no problems with salaries.

“Today we are so dependent on technology that we can no longer guarantee that everything is foolproof,” he said.

A global IT outage on Friday caused airlines to cancel flights, supermarkets to close their self-service checkouts with only card readers and TV stations to display “blue screens of death” behind their newsreaders

CrowdStrike released a statement Friday night confirming that a software upgrade was impacting Windows hosts, but noted that it was not a cyberattack.

“The issue has been identified, isolated and a solution has been implemented,” the report said.

‘We understand the seriousness of the situation and deeply regret the inconvenience and disruption.

“We are working with all affected customers to ensure their systems are up and running again and they can deliver the services their customers rely on.”

The US newspaper Daily Mail reported that the Global Payroll Association (GPA) had warned that people are “at risk of losing their pay” because their employers or banks rely on CrowdStrike for their cybersecurity.

Melanie Pizzey, founder and CEO of GPA, said her company had received complaints from a number of customers who were unable to access their payroll software due to the outage.

“Depending on the duration of the outage, this could have very serious implications for businesses across the country, particularly those that process payroll on a weekly basis,” Pizzey said.

“In addition, we may see a backlog in payroll processing toward the end of next month, potentially giving employees longer to receive their monthly paychecks.”