- Systems getting back to normal but beware
BUSINESS operators and those impacted by Friday’s computer outage are being warned to be on alert for scam attack as Australia and the world recovers from the CrowdStrike initiated incident.
Locally, Bass Coast Health which operates the Wonthaggi Hospital and the sub-region’s critical Emergency Department, has advised that all services are back to normal.
And all of the district’s supermarkets are open, fully stocked and virtually back to normal, although some checkouts are still to come back online.
However, while systems at airports, retail outlets and sporting venues come back online, the biggest risk now, according to the Australian Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, is that criminals will take advantage of what is believed to be the world’s biggest computer outage to scam unsuspecting people out of personal and banking details.
Speaking to the media on Saturday morning, Minister O’Neil, urged people not to respond to requests for personal or banking details by players offering to fix the CrowdStrike problem and to report any attempts to the government’s scam watch website at https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/
“There is something critical that I would like to ask Australians to do today and that is being really careful and being really on the lookout for attempts to use this to scam Australians, to scam small business.
“So, what we are seeing is attempts to conduct phishing through the threat that's just occurred.
“So, I'm going to explain what that means. What we are hearing is that some small businesses in particular, some individuals are receiving emails from people who are pretending to be CrowdStrike or who are pretending to be Microsoft, and indicating that you need to put in bank details to get access to a reboot, that you need to pay money that you need to put your personal details in so that your systems can be bought back online.
“But I ask all Australians to be really cautious over the next few days about attempts to use this for scamming or phishing.
“Now here's what we want you to do, we want you to use the SCAMwatch four step protections for people. The first is stop. If you see an email, if you see a text message that looks a little bit funny, that indicates something about CrowdStrike or IT outages, just stop. Don't put in any of you details when someone has called you and is suggesting that they're going to help talk you through a reboot of your system.
“I would hang up the phone. The trick that scammers are always trying to use here is trying to find ways to keep you talking, to keep you giving out your personal information.
“So, the first piece of advice is stop. Don't give any personal information and certainly don't put in any bank details online.
“Then just step back and think, have a look at the communication that you've just received and just ask, does it make sense for you, and your bank is not going to ask you to put your bank details in.
“If you're not a CrowdStrike customer as far as you're aware, you do not need to reboot your systems. So, just have a think about whether it makes sense.
“Then protect. If you have given away some personal information, just make sure that you're contacting your banking institution for example and making sure you let them know that you are concerned about a phone call or an email that you've responded to.
“And the final thing is to report. So, this is a moment where we can help our fellow Australian citizens if someone has tried to scam you, they are trying to scam others in all likelihood. You can help protect your fellow citizens by jumping online and going to the SCAMwatch website and just report back what's happened so we can make sure that the government can continue to alert people as we move forward.”
