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Industry leaders have warned of an influx of scams as businesses battle to get back online following last week’s CrowdStrike outage.
Businesses are being warned of an influx of emails, pop-ups and phone calls from scammers pretending to be Microsoft or CrowdStrike as businesses struggle to get back online following last week’s “blue screen of death” outages that rocked businesses across the globe.
The risks have prompted the Australian Signals Directorate to advise businesses to source their information from official CrowdStrike channels.
While the outages were not the result of a cyber attack, flow-on risks from scammers looking to exploit the phenomenon have led Cyber Wardens to encourage business leaders to review their cyber security processes.
In a recent statement, Council of Small Business Organisations Australia chief executive officer Luke Achterstraat warned businesses to be aware of scammers offering support.
“We expect many small businesses will be targeted over the coming days by phishing and scammers with fake emails or phone calls with messages like ‘I’m here to help you reboot your system, just click here’,” he said.
Matt Fedele-Sirotich, chief technology officer of CSO Group and Cyber Wardens adviser, said that Australian businesses have to keep their wits about them as scammers look to exploit the ongoing uncertainty.
“It is crucial that businesses operate with heightened awareness after major outages or global events as attackers capitalise on our eagerness to resolve the issue or be better informed. We all need to slow down and think before we act as this will enable us to collectively better protect our customers,” Fedele-Sirotich said.
“While this incident was not a deliberate cyber attack, it underscores the importance of businesses taking proactive measures to mitigate the risk of such threats.
“Unfortunately, it is often user error and lack of basic digital knowledge that opens the door to cyber threats, highlighting the need for ongoing education and awareness programs to strengthen cyber security resilience.”
Liam Garman is the editor of leading Australian security and defence publications Cyber Daily and Defence Connect.
Liam began his career as a speech writer at New South Wales Parliament before working for world leading campaigns and research agencies in Sydney and Auckland. Throughout his career, Liam has managed and executed a range of international media and communications campaigns spanning politics, business, industrial relations and infrastructure. He’s since shifted his attention to researching and writing extensively on geopolitics and defence, specifically in North Africa, the Middle East and Asia. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Sydney and a Masters of Strategy and Security from UNSW Canberra, with a thesis on postmodernism and disinformation operations.
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