- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has gone on holiday
- Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil has issued a warning
Anthony Albanese is taking a five-day holiday in Queensland amid warnings that scammers are now targeting Australians in the wake of the world’s worst computer crash.
The start of the Prime Minister’s holiday coincided with the CrowdStrike software update, which caused widespread outages and paralysed airlines, banks and supermarkets.
Albanese’s spokeswoman Fiona Sugden told the Daily Mail Australia that acting Premier Richard Marles would be in charge and the prime minister would be briefed continuously.
“The Prime Minister will be on leave for five days from Saturday 20 July 2024,” he said.
‘During this time, the Deputy Prime Minister will be the acting Prime Minister.’
Mr Albanese went on leave as Home Secretary Clare O’Neil issued warnings about the worst computer blunder in the history of the world.
“In terms of the size and scope of this event, this is the largest IT disruption in history,” he said.
“It’s absolutely plausible that that’s the case, certainly the biggest one in my time alive.”
Anthony Albanese takes a five-day holiday in Queensland amid warnings that scammers are now targeting Australians in the wake of the world’s worst IT meltdown
Ms O’Neil warned that scammers were trying to cash in on the global chaos caused by the CrowdStrike software update.
“What we’re hearing is that some small businesses, particularly some individuals, are receiving emails from people impersonating CrowdStrike or Microsoft,” he told reporters on Saturday.
‘So what we’re seeing in some reports are attempts to perform phishing via the incident that just occurred.
‘If you see an email, if you see a text message that looks a little bit strange, that says something about CrowdStrike or IT outages, just stop.
“Don’t give any details. If someone called you and said they were going to help you or explain how to reset the system, I would hang up.”
The start of the Prime Minister’s holiday coincided with the CrowdStrike software update, which caused widespread outages and paralysed airlines, banks and supermarkets.
Ms O’Neil said Australians had a civic duty to report such scams where fraudsters told individuals and small businesses they needed to pay money to restart the system.
“I’m asking all Australians to be extremely cautious over the coming days against attempts to use this for scams or phishing,” he said.
‘The last thing to say is that this is a time when we can help our fellow Australians.
“If someone tried to scam you, they’re trying to scam others.”