CrowdStrike, the company responsible for the global IT outage that caused chaos for businesses around the world, has announced a search for a Public Relations Director in Australia.
The job advert posted about three weeks ago was looking for a PR manager to work in their North Sydney office.
An Australian quickly spotted the ad and shared it on X, formerly Twitter, on the Friday after the crisis broke.
“CrowdStrike has been looking for a new Head of PR, based in North Sydney. Anyone interested?” the post read.
CrowdStrike, the company responsible for the global IT outage that caused chaos in businesses around the world, has announced the hiring of an Australian PR director. Photo: X
Among those affected by the global blackout are banks, media outlets and airlines around the world. Photo: X
The ad showed that the company was looking for a public relations director with experience in strategic communications.
The ad showed that seven people had clicked the “Apply” button.
The ad has already been removed.
It is not known whether any of the seven applicants were successful, but one thing is certain: the company is facing a public relations nightmare after what IT experts described as the worst IT outage they have ever seen.
“The silver lining is that his salary just went up,” one person commented.
“I have a specialty in crisis and problem management issues… reasonable fees, cheaper than lawyers who will be looking at some options,” said another.
“I understand you’re looking for work, Dom Perrotet,” said another person.
At around 3pm AEST on Friday, computer systems around the world crashed after a cybersecurity update at Microsoft failed.
Office workers and customer service desks around the world were faced with the Blue Screen of Death.
Airlines, supermarkets, banks, media outlets, gas stations and other large businesses and retailers came to a complete standstill, causing widespread chaos.
CrowdStrike offers data protection software and one of its products, Falcon Senator, is believed to have caused the global outage.
Coles supermarket checkout machines were among the IT equipment that was down due to the global service disruption. Photo: X
Australian billionaire Mike Sentonas from Melbourne is the global chairman of CrowdStrike, one of the world’s best-known cybersecurity companies.
CrowdStrike offers data protection software and it is believed that one of its products, Falcon Senator, caused the global outage.
News Corp reported that Sentonas gave a “now awkward interview” that was reminiscent of a public relations conference on how other companies should deal with IT breaches and crisis communication.
CrowdStrike CEO Michael Sentonas is facing a PR disaster after a cybersecurity update by the company caused a global computer system outage. Image: Supplied
“If an organisation has been the victim of a security breach, I usually work with the team to advise them on how to deal with the situation,” he told Nine Newspapers.
‘That might be the way to deal with the press, or to avoid going out and saying, ‘there’s a sophisticated adversary.’
‘I try to empower people to be open and transparent about what happened and how they are coping, which is vitally important to the client.
“You have to approach your customers and be honest, and if you try to trivialize it, it won’t work.”