CrowdStrike Microsoft outage: Fears over pay day for some Aussies as IT systems recover from global tech crash

Australian workers could miss out on getting paid amid fears the CrowdStrike outage could affect payroll systems.

A global IT outage on Friday saw airlines cancel flights, supermarkets close their card-only self-serve checkouts and TV stations displaying 'blue screens of death' behind their newsreaders.

The meltdown occurred after a software upgrade with security software program CrowdStrike caused problems with Microsoft applications globally.

Griffith University business and technology lecturer Graeme Hughes said businesses that relied on CrowdStrike were particularly at risk following Friday's outage.

'The risk is if employers or banks are using CrowdStrike, it may have stopped payroll transactions on Friday until systems are back up and running,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

Business payroll systems could be compromised if companies didn't have back-up plans to cope.

'It really does put at risk some of those fundamental things,' he said.

'With regards to payrolls, that's going to really come down to the individual providers and their technology - some may have some issues with it.

'We know that it's going to be a bit of a wait-and-see over the next few days.'

Australia is potentially facing the worst payroll disaster since 2010 when a new IBM payroll system in Queensland malfunctioned, leading to thousands of health workers being either underpaid, overpaid or in some cases, not paid at all. 

Australian Banking Association chief executive Anna Bligh was Queensland premier during that IBM bungle to led to her Labor Party losing the 2012 election in a devastating landslide.

But the lobby group for Australia's banks, which she now leads, said any problems with payrolls would be minor.

'Major disruptions to payments systems as a result of the CrowdStrike outage have not occurred and are not anticipated,' a spokesman told Daily Mail Australia.

'Impacts on banks and payments systems have been relatively minor, with any disruptions having already been remedied or in the process of being gradually restored.'

Mr Hughes said CrowdStrike wasn't primarily a payroll program like the IBM system was more than a decade ago. 

But he said it was premature to declare there would be no problems with payrolls.

'The reliance on technology these days, you can't ensure that everything's infallible,' he said. 

CrowdStrike released a statement on Friday night confirming a software upgrade had affected Windows hosts, noting it wasn't a cyber attack.

'The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,' it said.

'We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. 

'We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on.'

In the US Daily Mail reported that the Global Payroll Association (GPA) had warned that people 'risk going without their wages' because their employers or banks rely on CrowdStrike for cybersecurity protection'. 

Melanie Pizzey, the founder and CEO of GPA, said her company had received complaints from a number of clients who couldn't access their payroll software because of the outage. 

'Depending on the length of this outage, it could have very serious implications for businesses across the nation, particularly those who process payroll on a weekly basis,' Pizzey said.

'Furthermore, we could see a backlog with regard to processing payrolls for the coming month end which may delay employees from receiving their monthly wage.'