Telco CEO quits after admitting she needs to carry rivals' SIM cards to stay in touch
- Reference: 1700542871
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/11/21/optus_ceo_quits/
- Source link:
Bayer Rosmarin's resignation follows a [1]November 8 outage that saw around ten million Australians unable to connect to any Optus services for fourteen hours.
Optus hid its explanation of the outage in an FAQ at the bottom of [2]this page , where the incident is described as follows:
At around 4.05am Wednesday morning, the Optus network received changes to routing information from an international peering network following a software upgrade. These routing information changes propagated through multiple layers in our network and exceeded preset safety levels on key routers. This resulted in those routers disconnecting from the Optus IP Core network to protect themselves.
It was later revealed that the source of the routing information was Singtel, the Singapore-based telco that owns Optus. The Optus network connects to Singtel internet exchanges in North America and Asia.
Optus later blamed the incident on default settings in its Cisco routers, which couldn't cope with the volume of changes sent by Singtel as they exceeded safety limits. Optus's [3]submission explaining the outage is, however, silent on or why its network accepted such changes without testing their impact on its – a common and sensible approach to operating mission-critical inferastructure.
[4]
What is known is that the issue required physical intervention to restore some of the 200 impacted routers.
[5]
[6]
Australia, as Douglas Adams might have put it, is big. Really big. So crossing the country to fix routers took time.
While Optus techs did the job, even the phone number used to summon emergency services was not available. Thousands of small businesses were unable to process electronic payments – a big deal in a nation where just 13 percent of retail transactions are [7]settled with cash .
[8]Optus data breach prompts pincer movement of twin regulatory probes
[9]Singtel confirms digital burglary at Dialog subsidiary
[10]Major telco outage leaves millions of Australians disconnected
[11]Singtel outlines ambitions to become an ASEAN data centre power player
The danger Optus's outage posed, and the mass inconvenience, earned Bayer Rosmarin an appearance before a parliamentary committee.
Optus is no stranger to explaining itself to Australia's government. In 2022 it suffered a [12]major data breach that saw some of its customers forced to acquire new drivers licenses and/or passports after their credentials leaked.
[13]
Yet Bayer Rosmarin did not do well in her appearance regarding the outage, revealing that the nation's second-largest telco's disaster recovery regime did not envisage a total network outage. Another admission was that the former CEO's personal DR strategy had evolved to see her carry SIM cards for Australia's two rival mobile networks.
Her Friday appearance, and her firm's poor track record, filled plenty of weekend newspaper feature pages.
Come Monday, with anger far from dissipating, Bayer Rosmarin resigned.
[14]
Left unanswered is how Singtel poisoned the network in the first place, amid an undercurrent of concern that a foreign carrier – even one from a friend like Singapore – had deep enough access to an Australian network to bring it down.
A search for a new CEO has commenced. One candidate considered a front runner for the job is Gladys Berejiklian, already an Optus exec and a former premier (the equivalent of a US governor) of Australia's largest state, New South Wales. Berejiklian, however, is trying to see off a finding of corruption related to her time in office, when she promised her secret boyfriend – a fellow government MP – that she would secure funding for pet projects in his electorate. The boyfriend also discussed questionable property deals but Berejeklian failed to act.
Some of that evidence was gathered from surveillance of phone calls between the pair.
If only she'd used Optus instead. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/08/internet_phone_train_and_payments/
[2] https://www.optus.com.au/notices/outage-response
[3] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/11/21/optus_ceo_quits/Route%20Reflectors
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZVyN1G3ldsSgNJIt-DCmZgAAAMQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZVyN1G3ldsSgNJIt-DCmZgAAAMQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZVyN1G3ldsSgNJIt-DCmZgAAAMQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2023/jun/consumer-payment-behaviour-in-australia.html#:~:text=Australians%20are%20using%20cash%20less,and%20credit%20cards%20another%20quarter.
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/11/optus_acma_oaic_dual_probes/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/10/singtel_dialog_breach/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/08/internet_phone_train_and_payments/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/05/singtel_trades_towers_for_datacentres/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/11/optus_acma_oaic_dual_probes/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZVyN1G3ldsSgNJIt-DCmZgAAAMQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZVyN1G3ldsSgNJIt-DCmZgAAAMQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: DR Strategy
Given patchy Optus coverage even near the centre of large Australian cities, it's also a way for Optus execs to avoid slumming it with their users.
Ocne you're more than a few Belgiums away from a capital city there's no Optus coverage,e ven on highways.
Re: DR Strategy
I think the headline is also misleading. The article claims she carried other network SIM cards in case of emergency but the headline screams that she was fired for carrying such SIM cards.
If I was someone important in a telco (exec, senior engineer) I'd be carrying a work SIM and a SIM from another carrier "just in case".
Re: DR Strategy
Exactly this.
I worked in a telco around Y2K. In the run-up senior management meetings, I kept pointing out that I didn't have a mobile phone - kind of need that so I can provide the callout cover they were asking me for (shared callout mobile at the time, but only having the one wasn't going to be sufficient). It got to about mid-November, still no phone, so I went and got myself one - on a rival network. Rocked up to the meeting, they finally got around to me and I held up my new phone. One not available on their network yet, and clearly displaying a rival companie's logo.
My boss put his head in his hands, the execs asked me why I went with a contract from a rival, and I just said "It's not like I didn't ask for a phone. It's in the meeting minutes. Besides, if our network does go down, who you gonna call"?
Next day I had a company phone on my desk, and I still kept my job.
Re: DR Strategy
On the other hand, while working on a secure site I was provided with a mobile phone (in the house brick handset days) but was censured for using it to report an incident because of the cost. Not an ideal incident response strategy there.
Re: DR Strategy
Because occasionally, very very occasionally, they get something right and should be congratulated for exercising basic common sense.
Re: DR Strategy
There is a story, perhaps apocryphal although I have been assured at least parts of it are true by people who should know, that a telecom facility covering quite a large region died, and when the NOC tried to contact the nearby on-call engineers they could not get through, because the engineers had mobiles on that network. The post-incident review recommended that engineers should also be reachable through another network, and this was taken up. Perfectly sensible action.
Given that the facility was in Basingstoke, the kit probably died of boredom.
Re: DR Strategy
One of the very reasons why duel sim phones exist - Doh!
Re: DR Strategy
So they can fight it out. Pistols at dawn!
Re: DR Strategy
But no good if one SIM has already taken the other out.
Re: DR Strategy
Quite. How else are you going to yell at people to fix your network if your network is down?
To be honest, it's dumb that they would have to drive across the nation to reset switches and routers, too.
Those points should have an entirely independent access to them, to allow that to happen remotely and electronically.
Wow talk about bad optics
Even if carrying your rival's SIM cards is part of your "personal DR plan" you'd want to keep that a secret!
Gladys Berejiklian
Seriously?
Re: Gladys Berejiklian
Because nothing says integrity like a former politician who resigned due to a corruption investigation.
Must have a short memory as well as low bandwidth.
Jesus ****ing Christ, not Gladys. No no and no.
If she takes over, I really will be leaving Optus. Yeah and thanks for the gratuitous extra data I can use before the end of the year... not.
Get your shit together.
Never display the logo of a rival
While it makes perfect sense to have multiple SIMs across different networks from a DR perspective, the optics of it can be quite bad.
Imagine how it would look if the boss of Nike was caught walking around in Adidas trainers, because he found them more comfy!
It's not just the public perception, it's also the optics of how it will be perceived internally. Remember that the worker bees are usually told to "live their brand", and be local ambassador's for it.
About 5 years ago - one particular large(st?) UK MVNO, which had a major push to get group employees and friends/family to purchase contracts, then had a major faux pas at one of their company all hands. They had got the exec team up on stage and were fielding questions from employees. One employee decided to ask what mobile provider they all used. While most of them answered proudly that they only used their own network, one exec publicly stated that he used a rival telco, because the CEO had told him "your roaming usage is too expensive on our network, use another SIM to lower the bill". cue a lot of awkward silences and shuffling from the other execs on that stage!
DR Strategy
"Another admission was that the former CEO's personal DR strategy had evolved to see her carry SIM cards for Australia's two rival mobile networks."
And this has been highlighted for what reason? This sounds perfectly sensible to me. (Unless by "personal" it means her and only her and not the rest of the people who would be involved in DR?)