Supermarkets in chaos, critical SA services down, flights cancelled in global IT outage
Supermarkets were cash only, flights cancelled amid widespread delays at Adelaide Airport and critical government agencies came to a standstill as a global IT outage caused chaos across SA.
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There was chaos at SA supermarkets and the airport as critical government agencies wernt down amid a global IT outage that took out internet and payment services worldwide.
Travellers lined up for upwards of an hour at Adelaide Airport as major airlines were crippled by the global computer outage.
Check-in systems for Jetstar and Qantas went down, leaving a number of passengers stranded.
Three Virgin flights were cancelled as outages wreak havoc on the airline’s systems.
A spokesperson warned any passengers flying on Friday to allow extra time to check in. For updates on individual flights, passengers are advised to contact their airline.
Bali wedding flights cancelled
A wedding party of 30 travellers headed for Bali, including bride and groom Nicole Fullwood and Shaun Crowell, are among those stranded at Adelaide Airport as computer outages wreak havoc on airlines’ check-in systems.
The couple, with their son Harley, 2, said they had been at the airport for at least an hour but were yet to hear whether their flights would go ahead, leaving loved ones’ plans in limbo.
“We’ve got a lot of people here who have put themselves out for us and a lot of children travelling - getting kids to the airport is hard enough in the first place,” Ms Fullwood said.
“Our family and friends have all paid for accommodation and transport in Bali tonight and it would be pretty frustrating if the flight was cancelled.
“But airport staff have been amazing, they’ve been bringing water around and colouring books for the kids … we just hope we get moving soon.”
Shaun Williams and Bray Rafanelli, also travelling with the bride and groom, said they had moved just eight metres in the two hours they had been at the airport.
“Unfortunately we’re too far away to even hear updates from Jetstar’s PA system, but we’re hoping we still have enough time to make it on the plane,” Mr Williams said.
“A Jetstar representative told us that, worst case scenario, the flight would be cancelled or rebooked for tomorrow.”
Calvary Hospital hit
The outage has affected Calvary hospitals, a spokeswoman confirmed.
“We have activated our business continuity plans and essential services are still operating,” the spokeswoman said.
“Some of our phone systems have also been affected. We ask for people's patience if they are having difficulties trying to connect with loved ones in our hospitals, aged care homes or home care service centres.”
The Advertiser understands the IT outage has also caused operating theatres at Calvary to close.
Cash only at supermarkets, servos
Since 4pm Coles Rundle Mall has stationed a worker at the entrance of the store to inform customers that they will be accepting "cash-only payments" due to a "nationwide power issue".
Numerous people wanting to get their after-work shopping done have been turned around from completing their chore due to this system error.
At the Adelaide Central Market, Skala Artisan Bakery staff member Will Thomas said he had turned away four customers within half an hour of EFTPOS machines going down, and expected to lose money through the night.
"It's not great - that was 25 per cent of our customers, and if you multiply that by the fact we're open until nine, we're probably going to lose a quite bit of money," Mr Thomas said.
One Coles shopper Heather Morton, 80, was forced to cancel her plans of buying fruits for her breakfast because she didn't have cash on her.
"I usually carry cash on me but I've already spent it earlier in the week," she told The Advertiser.
"This is a bit of an inconvenience - I usually buy my little things from this Coles because I live in the city - but I'll just come back tomorrow morning."
One southern suburbs resident told others not to “bother” about filling their cars up with petrol, with outages reported throughout OTRs in Aldinga.
“Aldinga OTR systems are down at the moment so don’t bother trying to get fuel for a bit until they’re up and running,” they said.
Similarly, Woolworths on Rundle Mall has closed their self-check out area due to a system error but customers can still pay with card or cash with a server.
Bunnings Mile End was unable to take EFTPOS payments and a company spokesman confirmed stores nationwide were experiencing similar issues.
Bunnings chief information officer Gen Elliott said "we’re working with our vendor to address this as a priority and thank customers for their patience".
Critical services hit
Meanwhile, critical South Australian government agencies, including SA Power and SA Water, are among a number of businesses to experience issues.
An SA Power Networks spokeswoman said they were asking customers to report their issues via the SA Power Network website due to a systems failure.
“Our internal systems are down,” they said. “We are working to resolve the issue.”
About 3.30pm, SA Water’s call centre went down and employees began suffering technical issues.
The Royal Adelaide Hospital and triple-0 is unaffected, as is SAPOL.
A Department of Transport spokesperson said the outage had not impacted any systems within the department. Both Adelaide University and UniSA are also affected.
Illuminate Adelaide events cancelled
Illuminate Adelaide festival, which wraps this weekend, has had to cancel Friday's Fire Gardens and Universal Kingdom: Prehistoric Nights performances because the global IT outage means tickets cannot be processed.
EDEN, Superluminal and Unsound Adelaide shows will go ahead. Festival organisers have asked ticket holders to visit the venue box office at each event prior to entry.
What's causing the outage?
A “large scale” global outage at cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike struck dozens of Australian companies, including the big banks, Bunnings, Telstra and Qantas as well as state emergency services, with one cybersecurity expert branding it an “unmitigated disaster”.
The outage has also shut down several news websites and publishers across the country including the national broadcaster ABC.
The shutdown forced Microsoft devices to go blue and then try to reboot, locking users out of key systems.
Australia’s biggest telco Telstra was also affected, with a spokesman confirming it was working with state-based emergency services to restore services.
“Like a number of other organisations, global issues affecting CrowdStrike and Microsoft are disrupting some of our systems,” the Telstra spokesman said.
Outage website Downdetector reported Bendigo Bank, Foxtel, National Australia Bank, Australia Post, Suncorp, Xero, NBN, Commonwealth Bank, MYOB, ME Bank, Optus, Telstra Amazon, Westpac, Google, ANZ and Microsoft being among the companies caught in the mass shut down.
Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator Michelle McGuinness said it appeared the outrage was not the work of online criminals.
- with Jared Lynch, Emily Olle and Lynton Grace
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