KUALA LUMPUR, The Malaysia Retail Chain Association (MRCA) said the global information technology (IT) outage yesterday did not affect its members overall, although some had issues with online orders. 'As for our members, the outage did not affect everyone, except, perhaps some dealing with online orders, mobile applications (apps), online payments, and some in the supply chain space, where the impact of the outage hindered business in one way or the other,' MRCA told Bernama today. Nonetheless, the association said it has not received any major reports from members, and believes that they have put in place countermeasures to overcome temporary setbacks. 'This may not necessarily be the same elsewhere, but for now although we have not seen any major negative impact. We will continue to monitor this so-called temporary or intermittent business hindrance,' it said. It has also suggested to members to inform customers to use alternative means when placing orders. Earlier on Friday, major institutions such as airlines, banks, media channels and hospitals in several countries were reportedly affected by the global IT outage. The outage was linked to global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc, an American cybersecurity technology company based in Austin, Texas, that provides endpoint protection, threat intelligence and cyberattack response services. Established in 1992, MRCA currently has more than 550 members representing over 40,000 outlets, providing more than 400,000 job opportunities in Malaysia and abroad. Source: BERNAMA News Agency