Cyber watchdogs warn on phishing scams as IT outage fallout lingers
Global cyber security watchdogs have raised the alarm over malicious websites claiming to fix glitches in the wake of one of the world’s biggest IT outages that was still causing disruption over the weekend. US, UK and Australian cyber defence agencies all issued separate warnings over the weekend against increased phishing activity exploiting the incident, as aftershocks continued to be felt from an unprecedented IT outage triggered by a faulty CrowdStrike software update. Airlines and healthcare services were among those still grappling with the consequences. “A number of malicious websites and unofficial code are being released claiming to help entities recover from the widespread outages caused by the CrowdStrike technical incident,” said the Australian Cyber Security Centre, a government agency. The US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency said that hackers were trying to “leverage” the outage to conduct malicious activity, including the distribution of a ZIP archive file that appeared to be targeting CrowdStrike users based in Latin America. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre said that “an increase in phishing referencing this outage has already been observed [ . . . ] aimed at both organisations and individuals”. CrowdStrike, the cyber security group whose software patch caused problems for an estimated 8.5mn Microsoft PCs and servers, recommended on Sunday that “organisations verify they are communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels”. The Texas-based company said that it has issued a fix for the defect and that a “significant number” of the devices affected were back online and operational. But the worst-affected industries, from global travel to healthcare, look set to feel the effects into next week — and potentially beyond. The worldwide aviation sector was largely returning to normal on Sunday, although some carriers were still struggling to get their operations back on track. In the US alone there were about 1,200 cancellations and 3,800 delays on Sunday, according to tracker FlightAware; down from nearly 3,400 cancellations and 13,000 delays on Friday.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2024-07-22/general/cyber-watchdogs-warn-on-phishing-scams-as-it-outage-fallout-lingers
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Cyber watchdogs warn on phishing scams as IT outage fallout lingers
Global cyber security watchdogs have raised the alarm over malicious websites claiming to fix glitches in the wake of one of the world’s biggest IT outages that was still causing disruption over the weekend. US, UK and Australian cyber defence agencies all issued separate warnings over the weekend against increased phishing activity exploiting the incident, as aftershocks continued to be felt from an unprecedented IT outage triggered by a faulty CrowdStrike software update. Airlines and healthcare services were among those still grappling with the consequences. “A number of malicious websites and unofficial code are being released claiming to help entities recover from the widespread outages caused by the CrowdStrike technical incident,” said the Australian Cyber Security Centre, a government agency. The US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency said that hackers were trying to “leverage” the outage to conduct malicious activity, including the distribution of a ZIP archive file that appeared to be targeting CrowdStrike users based in Latin America. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre said that “an increase in phishing referencing this outage has already been observed [ . . . ] aimed at both organisations and individuals”. CrowdStrike, the cyber security group whose software patch caused problems for an estimated 8.5mn Microsoft PCs and servers, recommended on Sunday that “organisations verify they are communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels”. The Texas-based company said that it has issued a fix for the defect and that a “significant number” of the devices affected were back online and operational. But the worst-affected industries, from global travel to healthcare, look set to feel the effects into next week — and potentially beyond. The worldwide aviation sector was largely returning to normal on Sunday, although some carriers were still struggling to get their operations back on track. In the US alone there were about 1,200 cancellations and 3,800 delays on Sunday, according to tracker FlightAware; down from nearly 3,400 cancellations and 13,000 delays on Friday.<br/>
