Grocery giants in Newcastle's CBD were crippled on Friday night as a global tech blackout spread through the city.
Coles at Marketown in Newcastle was operating on cash sales only, and Woolworths closed its doors entirely, citing the widespread technology outage as the reason.
Fast food outlets on Hunter Street appeared similarly impacted as news spread that a widespread outage brought down many of the country's largest institutions, including banks, airlines, media outlets, and government services.
A spokesperson for NSW Police said around 6.30pm that their internal systems were working again after the service posted a statement to X around two hours earlier that they were aware of the "current system outage." The spokesperson said it was understood Triple-Zero calls were unaffected.
A spokesperson for the Australian government said it was working "closely" with the National Cyber Security Coordinator.
A federal government spokesperson said that the National Emergency Mechanism group is expected to meet shortly.
"There is no information to suggest this is a cyber security incident, and they are continuing to engage across key stakeholders," the spokesperson said, later confirmed by National Cyber Security Coordinator Michelle McGuinness on social media.
Newcastle Airport posted Friday evening that some flights were continuing, but the outage affected some airlines and terminal services. Passengers were advised to contact their airline for updates.
Trains on the Hunter line were stopped between Newcastle Interchange and Dungo and Scone as the outage spread to the state's transport network. A post from Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison said buses were being arranged to replace the downed service, but passengers were told to prepare for delays and to make other arrangements if possible.
RMIT associate professor Dr Mark Gregory said the outage appeared to have been caused by a failure of systems associated with the Crowdstrike Falcon endpoint security monitoring software.
Crowdstrike is a global multi-national software solutions provider.
"The reliance on centrally managed global software solutions can lead to significant security risks," he said.
The details of this report are developing. It may be updated.
