The impact of the global tech outage is diminishing, but concerns about the associated costs remain.

The knock-on effects of the unprecedented global IT outage have lessened for Australian businesses, but the economic cost remains uncertain.

Banks, media outlets, airports, supermarkets, retailers, government services, and hospitals were left scrambling due to the Friday afternoon outage.

Authorities attribute the incident to a defect in a software update deployed by major cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, ruling out a malicious cyberattack. Home Affairs and Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil stated on Saturday that the outage was likely the largest in history, but efforts were now focused on restoring business operations.

“This has been a very serious incident for the Australian economy,” she said after a National Co-ordination Mechanism meeting with CrowdStrike representatives.

Ms. O’Neil mentioned that there would be significant inquiries into CrowdStrike’s handling of the outage and its financial impact on the country and consumers.

Although most companies are now operational, minor issues such as delays at airports and some supermarket check-outs remain. A new concern has emerged, with scammers exploiting the outage to target Australian consumers and businesses with phishing emails, texts, and calls.

Emails falsely claiming to be from Microsoft or CrowdStrike are asking Australians to provide bank or personal details to access a software reboot. The Australian Signals Directorate has also warned about hackers releasing malicious websites and code purportedly to help fix the outage.

Ms. O’Neil urged Australians to remain vigilant against suspicious activity and report it to ScamWatch.

“Don’t give any personal information and certainly don’t provide bank details or money,” she advised.