Major telco outage leaves millions of Australians disconnected
- Reference: 1699424707
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/11/08/internet_phone_train_and_payments/
- Source link:
The outage also affected transport as Melbourne trains were [1]temporarily inoperable and network users had no internet with which to call ride-shares or taxis.
Even many who could get a ride found themselves without the ability to pay as EFTPOS terminals [2]were also down – and well, who carries cash anymore?
[3]
The disruptions didn't stop there. [4]Hospitals also had their landlines impacted, as did [5]Forest Fire Management Victoria.
[6]
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"We're aware of an issue impacting Optus mobile and nbn [national broadband network] services and are working to restore services as quickly as possible. We understand connectivity is important and apologize for any inconvenience caused,” [8]Optus announced early into the outage.
The telco encouraged customers who needed to contact emergency services to use a mobile line to call, as landlines would not work but alternative carriers would be available for emergency roaming, or "camping."
[9]
Internet watchdog Netblocks [10]tracked Optus's internet services as being partially restored in the eighth hour of the outage, but the mobile network remained down. Optus has since [11]detailed that both services are being gradually restored – but it would take hours to fully recover.
[12]Optus data breach prompts pincer movement of twin regulatory probes
[13]Overheating datacenter stopped 2.5 million bank transactions
[14]Australian video-streamer lets users opt out of ads for burgers, booze, and betting
[15]Mid-contract telco price hikes must end, Ofcom told
CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin told [16]Australia's public broadcaster the root cause of the incident is not yet known, however there is no indication it is linked to a cyber attack.
There is speculation that the outage may have been triggered by a software update that fed in incorrect router information, which could have triggered a Border Gateway Protocol prefix flood. While there has been no word from Optus to confirm whether or not this is the case, [17]information from Cloudflare indicates that BGP "route" requests were hovering at a normal level until they suddenly surged at about 4am – right when the Optus outage started.
Members of the Australian government have had some stern words for the carrier. South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas [18]declared Optus had "let their customers down" and that the South Australian government was considering switching critical services to other companies.
Communications minister Michelle Rowland has [19]urged transparency and timeliness from Optus. She called the incident a "deep fault" and advised small businesses to "keep receipts" so that any recourse available could be accessed.
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Last year Optus experienced a cyber attack that [21]exposed enough information for threat attackers to open bank accounts in the names of its victims. The telco received criticism for not proactively communicating the breach to the victims.
The troubled telco boasts 10.2 million customers, which equates to around 40 percent of Australia’s population. It is a subsidiary of Singaporean telecom company Singtel.
Singapore experienced its own [22]outage this month that also affected economic continuity when a datacenter overheated and backup systems failed resulting in 2.5 million thwarted bank transactions.
Singaporean minister Alvin Tan called on consumers and businesses to provide alternative means of payment as to avoid disruption in these types of scenarios.
According to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), the ongoing decline of cash has [23]accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic, with cash on the continent accounting for only 13 percent of payments in 2022. This assessment has sparked [24]speculation that a transition to a cashless society is inevitable and imminent.
But as [25]many [26]smug Australian residents have [27]expressed , this Optus outage could inspire a cash revival – or at least a digital-only rethink. ®
Get our [28]Tech Resources
[1] https://twitter.com/metrotrains/status/1721945998510178326
[2] https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/internet/cashless-society-warning-amid-total-disaster-optus-outage/news-story/2d335c676ecb63c48a61f32b96f583e0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZUtqUp09f21iBVHyD4gPYQAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://twitter.com/Epworth/status/1722083542262304771
[5] https://twitter.com/FFMVic/status/1722046241339568474
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZUtqUp09f21iBVHyD4gPYQAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZUtqUp09f21iBVHyD4gPYQAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://twitter.com/optus_help/status/1722070399205150962
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZUtqUp09f21iBVHyD4gPYQAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1722047063636992113
[11] https://twitter.com/optus_help/status/1722070336748106056
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/11/optus_acma_oaic_dual_probes/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/07/overheating_datacenter_singapore/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/31/sbs_streaming_vice_ads_optout/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/03/which_uswitch_telco_hikes/
[16] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-08/optus-phone-internet-service-down-across-australia/103076700
[17] https://radar.cloudflare.com/traffic/as4804
[18] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-08/optus-phone-internet-service-down-across-australia/103076700
[19] https://www.smh.com.au/national/communications-minister-michelle-rowland-on-optus-outage-20231108-p5eiga.html
[20] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZUtqUp09f21iBVHyD4gPYQAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/23/cyberattack_optus/
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/07/overheating_datacenter_singapore
[23] https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2023/jun/cash-use-and-attitudes-in-australia.html
[24] https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/inevitable-australia-to-be-cashless-within-years/news-story/faba87a741b516359238bf3d5406970c
[25] https://twitter.com/CJ_Aylen/status/1722086191443669188
[26] https://twitter.com/MRobertsQLD/status/1721995312859111709
[27] https://twitter.com/OurNewHomecoach/status/1722019387514012056
[28] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Who, Me?
You beat me to it ...
Though, at the time it certainly wasn't funny. I was out in the garden this morning when two police cars and 4 coppers arrived, because the social worker couldn't contact my elderly neighbour on the phone (and the 4 large police couldn't get a response from knocking). They got through in the end , and she was OK - but I'm sure similar stories have been happening all over Aus today.
Re: Who, Me?
Even 000 wasn't working from Optus landlines according to some reports which is... yeah.
What staggers me is the sheer amount of critical public infrastructure that apparently doesn't have a fallback mode and simply fails when it loses comms.
If you were visiting from overseas you would just switch to a different network, but if you had an Optus sim you were off the air. Optus. Yeh. :/
Given how essential these services are now, perhaps the mobile networks should agree a protocol to switch on national roaming if any network goes down.
Because they know it could be their network next (and in fact it happened to Vodafone in the past).
So you have to scale your network to cope with at least twice as many subscribers as you have??
Yeah, can't see that happening.
No cash?
Surely you jest.
Cash is still king with me and mine.
And Optus? No!
Re: No cash?
Optus has perpetual dead-spots in areas within 5km of downtown Sydney CBD that get no attention.
Reporting them to Optus (with signal-strength analytics) is about as effective as writing it on my forehead in crayon.
"left millions nationwide without phone or internet access – either mobile or terrestrial"
Witness the danger of convergence. The 'digital revolution' has replaced several entirely independent comms systems, with its associated resilience, with everything depending on a single infrastructure, so everything dies when this breaks. That's not really progress from the human perspective -- indeed it presents a real danger (even to life and limb).
Re: "left millions nationwide without phone or internet access – either mobile or terrestrial"
It also warns customers to avoid bundling deals.
My internet stayed up, because only my mobile is with Optus.
I Feel for the small shops...
If I had read this 2 months ago, I probably would have made some snarky comment about, Millenials not carrying cash, and how I always keep cash on me in case you come to a place that doesnt accept cards or an emergency like this happens.
BUT I actually just got back from a month in Aus, and wow, I have never been to a place where cash is used LESS than in Australia now! I always had cash on me, but a LOT of places wouldnt even take cash, even for small purchases. Everything was digital and over Eftpos. Probably because finding an ATM was also a struggle in a lot of places (or with massive fees piled on top!). Even my 80 year old mother, didnt carry any cash anymore.
So when the network goes down like this, a lot of the small shops would be screwed! First, they cant process payments, and second, their customers dont have cash on them to make the payments in another way. This will have hurt a lot of small businesses. Will they get any sort of compensation? Not f%&kin likely...
Re: I Feel for the small shops...
We were already enthusiastic adopters of contactless payments pre-pandemic, but that was basically the final nail in cash's coffin.
Re: I Feel for the small shops...
Almost like if you're running a business-critical system like payment processing that you need an independent backup that's not reliant on a single telco.
No matter the practicalities of that, small business is no different - if it's going to cost you, say, thousands of dollars to go a day without payment processing, then you should at least be spending a thousand dollars to try to mitigate that in most circumstances.
They could buy Starlink (or other satellite broadband), they could use another cellular provider, they could link with other local shops and get another / better line, etc.
I cannot imagine - as a self-employed person - running any kind of physical retail shop without at least a Square or iZettle reader under the counter for backup, and some other way of getting online.
I kind of get it in the middle of nowhere out in the sticks, but that's not where the vast, vast majority of Australians live or Australian shops are.
Honestly, if I had my entire income stream reliant on a little box that swipes cards, I'd have several backups of all the parts necessary if that were to fail.
Re: I Feel for the small shops...
Square went down here a couple of months back. A restaurant had me pay for my lunch by direct deposit.
It was only when I got home that I noticed I'd still paid them for the Square transaction fee...
Now throw CDBC into the mix.
The fun's just starting.
Not quite to same scale
But there was a school in UK shut because their internet was down and it took everything needed to operate safely, including fire alarms, out
[1]BBC Link
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-67314252
Given how well the negotiations went to allow hassle-free roaming in remote areas a couple of years back I can't see them making more headway to revisit that with the added inclusion of metro.
What does need to happen is for whichever regulator is appropriate to be given the teeth to go and make it happen
Who, Me?
I cannot wait for the Who, Me? episode about this one.