Worldwide technology outage impacts leisure industry

An unprecedented electronic network outage is affecting major institutions and businesses in Australia and internationally, impacting airlines, banks, supermarkets, media websites, related servers and other infrastructure.

AFL fans holding mobile tickets for this evening’s Essendon and Adelaide clash at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium have been warned that they may face difficulty accessing the venue while Australasian Leisure Management has been unable to send out today’s edition of its enewsletter (distributed via the Campaign Monitor platform) because of the outage.

Reports indicate that issues relate to an update released by USA-based CrowdStrike - one of the largest cybersecurity companies in the world - whose Falcon software is installed on Windows, Mac and Linux systems globally, protecting from attacks including credential theft.

With the update released overnight in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and nations in East Asia were among the first to be impacted.

First experienced at about 2.40pm AEST, as the afternoon progressed, the outage then affected Windows PCs servers with the ABC reporting that universities, law firms, petrol stations and blood donation services had also been impacted.

At around 5.30pm, Marvel Stadium alerted fans of the situation for tonight’s AFL clash, with the following message on Facebook.

The statement was then released by AFL spokesperson Jay Allen while Essendon told fans “all physical tickets, corporate tickets and physical membership cards are working.

"The mobile membership care feature on the club app is NOT WORKING, impacting Essendon, Adelaide, AFL and Medallion club members.”

As reported by the Reuters news agency, the Paris Olympics organising committee said on Friday that the outage was slowing its operations, but that the impact was limited with ticket sales unaffected ahead of the Games which begin in a week.

However, at the Games' press centre, security checks outside were done manually using lists of names, and the accreditation desk was closed.

Sky Sports New Zealand journalist Wilson Catton told Reuters "I've arrived in Paris this morning and went to get my accreditation validated and have been told no.

"They can't issue any accreditation or anything for I don't know how long."

Tony Estanguet, the head of the Paris Olympics Organising Committee, told reporters that contingency plans were put in place but the outage was slowing operations, and the committee was "hoping that Microsoft can solve the outage very quickly."

Comment from Australian Travel Industry Association
Commenting on the outage, Australian Travel Industry Association Chief Executive, Dean Long issued a statement advising “this is an issue that is impacting people's travel in different ways depending on where they are and which airline they're flying. A big shout out to all our travel professionals out there who are doing what they can to support Australians in their travels whether it's getting away or getting home."

Image: AFL action at Marvel Stadium.