CrowdStrike has $1.5m software deal with Australian Defence Force

The technology company caught up in the global IT outage has millions of dollars worth of government contracts in Australia, including with Defence.

The technology company caught up in the global IT outage has millions of dollars worth of federal government contracts, including with Defence.

CrowdStrike, which describes itself as a “global cybersecurity leader”, signed a three-year, $1.5 million contract with Defence for “software” purposes in December 2022.

According to AusTender, CrowdStrike also has an agreement with the Australian Signals Directorate worth $981,000.

There is also at least one $450,000 contract with the Future Fund Management Agency.

Companies using CrowdStrike have also won multimillion-dollar tenders with the NSW government, including one worth almost $10 million with NSW Police.

A tender notice published last year showed the contract was awarded in December 2022 to Solista Pty Ltd and will expire at the end of this year.

The notice showed the company was offering the police service “CrowdStrike software licences and support services”.

This Terry White Chemist resorted to pen and paper. Picture: David Clark

The dreaded blue screen at Woolworths Town Hall. Picture: Supplied

Other agencies to have contracts with companies using CrowdStrike include the Department of Planning, which has a $4.7 million deal with Sekuro Operations Pty Ltd.

The tender notice shows Sekuro uses CrowdStrike Falcon for server renewal.

Other agencies with or who have had contracts with companies using CrowdStrike include Department of Customer Service, and Transport for NSW.

The major cyber outage swept through business globally, knocking some stocks, including that of CrowdStrike and Microsoft.

An update from cybersecurity software company CrowdStrike appeared to cause outages for millions of users of Microsoft Windows devices worldwide.

Microsoft stock fell almost 2 per cent, while CrowdStrike shares fell 14 per cent.

Stock trading appeared to be functioning normally across most European exchanges, although the London Stock Exchange said it was unable to publish news releases to its website.

No KFC for you! The IT outage has left major retailers struggling to accept payments. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

Global stocks largely declined. The Stoxx Europe 600 was down and Taiwan’s benchmark Taiex and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng both fell by more than 2 per cent.

Airline stocks also dropped around the world, with Air France-KLM, IAG and Ryanair all posting losses.

In Australia on Friday evening, Downdetector was still reporting outages for Bendigo Bank, the Commonwealth Bank, NAB, ANZ, Westpac, Suncorp Bank, ING, mebank, St George Bank and Visa.

A range of telcos were still affected — Telstra, the NBN, Vodafone and Optus — as were broadcasters including the ABC, Nine, Foxtel, and Facebook.

User reports also indicated problems for services including Microsoft 365, Uber and Uber Eats, Netflix, Disney+, Sportsbet and dating platform PlentyOfFish.

The outage took out mobile payment terminals, some ATMs, and supermarket checkout.

Star Casino was hit by the attack and the TAB was impacted, but poker machines at pubs appeared to be unaffected. It is understood the machines are not connected to computers, so they should not have been infected with Crowdstrike’s corrupted software patch.

There were some reports of card payment machines being down at pubs.

However, it appeared on Friday night that registered clubs escaped unscathed.

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