Most important points
- A global IT outage caused chaos at banks, media companies, retailers and airports on Friday.
- The cause was an error in an update from the American cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.
- Many social media users found the situation funny.
Computer systems around the world were hit by an unprecedented IT outage on Friday, with banks, media companies, airlines and retail stores all affected, with many forced to close their doors.
The outage was caused by an error in an update released by and affected Windows users.
But while government officials and IT experts scrambled to dig deeper, social media users, as usual, saw humor in the situation.
Some compared the situation to Y2K, a computer programming error expected to cause global chaos between 1999 and 2000.
Others joked about who was behind the outage.
There were also tributes to IT workers trying to save companies’ systems, and to office workers hoping for time off.
Is Australia still experiencing the outage?
Home Secretary Clare O’Neil said on Saturday morning thatwhile the economy is in a ‘recovery phase’.
Businesses are still trying to clean up the mess left by the outage, most notably Jetstar, which has left thousands stranded with 150 cancelled flights.
Stores such as Woolworths, Coles, Dan Murphy’s and BWS are open and operating, but some checkouts are still closed and have adjusted opening hours.
As the world returns to normal and continues with daily business, there will always be memes.
Additional reporting by the Australian Associated Press