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Network outage

September

The global IT crisis was the result of a software update provided by CrowdStrike,

Why competition laws could increase the risk of blue screen attacks

We should beware of one-size-fits-all technology policies that could open smart devices to the third-party vulnerabilities that caused the CrowdStrike outage.

  • Michael Rogers and Jane M. Hardy

July

Experts say the swift and effective intervention of the National Co-ordination Mechanism, under Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, was a positive sign that Australia is becoming better at responding to IT disasters.

Why business is left helpless when big tech stuffs up

Experts say there is little most organisations can do to avoid future calamities like the CrowdStrike outage, but Australia’s emergency responses are improving.

  • Paul Smith
A blue screen of death.

CrowdStrike failure raises billion-dollar compensation question

Insurers could bear the brunt of costly fallout from the global IT outage on Friday, as techies at companies worked over the weekend to get services back up and running.

  • Paul Smith and Ronald Mizen
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said: This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”

What is CrowdStrike? The IT giant behind the global meltdown

Flights were cancelled, broadcasters went off air, trains didn’t run and medical procedures were delayed around the world.

  • Kate Conger and Claire Moses

December 2023

Ms Bayer Rosmarin last appeared in public representing Optus at a Senate inquiry in late November.

Ex-chief Kelly Bayer Rosmarin severs final ties with Optus

The former chief executive stayed for the transition to acting chief executive of Michael Venter, who is also the company’s chief financial officer.

  • Jenny Wiggins
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November 2023

Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin during a Senate hearing into the telco’s outage.

‘We didn’t have a plan’: Optus admits it was caught out

In a make-or-break appearance for Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, senators failed to land a knockout blow, but gleaned some damaging admissions.

  • Updated
  • Paul Smith
Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin faces a grilling over her response to the outage.

Optus says payouts for mass outage would set a precedent

Optus has laid out its defences to criticism of its network outage, as CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin considers her future.

  • Paul Smith
ASIC chair Joe Longo is increasingly alarmed at Australia’s lack of preparedness for cyber threats.

ASIC warns of ‘alarming’ holes in business’ cyber defences

ASIC is alarmed at corporate Australia’s lack of preparedness for digital threats, while experts say it will be costly for telcos to comply with new cyber laws.

  • Paul Smith
Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin.

Optus faces review, compensation claims amid earnings slide

CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin and her executive team have been blasted for leaving politicians to do the company’s crisis communications after Wednesday’s national outage.

  • Paul Smith and Jenny Wiggins
The Bourke Street Optus store was filled with angry customers.

The Optus outage wasn’t a hack. Here’s why we’re screwed if it had been

Optus’ chaotic outage wasn’t cyber warfare, and that’s lucky. We saw that we can’t function if one part of our digital lives falls over.

  • Paul Smith
Nidal Mkazi, owner of a Brisbane convenience store, lost between $600 and $700 in sales.

‘Cash only’ and old-fashioned IOUs: how businesses dealt without Optus

Thousands of companies and enterprises were disrupted by the outage that left millions of Australians without phone or internet services for close to nine hours. 

  • Tess Bennett
Customers line up outside an Optus shop front on George Street in Sydney during a country-wide network outage.

Optus CEO says ‘no soundbite’ to explain phone outage chaos

Optus boss Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said the cause of a national outage of phone and internet services was too ‘technical’ to explain.

  • Updated
  • Jenny Wiggins and Paul Smith

September 2023

Block-owned Square suffered a big outage on Friday, drawing attention to a lack of regulation by the RBA.

Square payment outage raises red flags at the Reserve Bank

Block-owned Square does not report data on reliability and outages to the RBA. That might change after its payments system went down on Friday.

  • James Eyers

May 2023

Telstra mobile phone users suffer 11-hour outage

Mobile phone users in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide began having difficulties at 10pm on Monday. The problem wasn’t fixed until 9am on Tuesday.

  • Updated
  • Tess Bennett

October 2022

ASX updates on outage.

ASX still working on automation for outages

The market operator says it will deliver another consultation paper exploring ways to automate services during outages.

  • Ayesha de Kretser
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RBA restores payment system after major outage

A failure after a software update involving its virtual servers had frozen money transfers worth almost a billion dollars at big banks across the country.

  • Updated
  • James Eyers and Ayesha de Kretser

August 2022

Qantas planes sat on the tarmac leaving passengers frustrated at the end of the weekend.

The tech problem that caused Qantas flight chaos

Qantas passengers were stranded on tarmac around the country on Sunday night, being told only that it was a “computer issue,” the real problem has now been revealed.

  • Tess Bennett

June 2022

ASX pledges to do better on outages, ASIC wants trading alternatives

ASX issued a paper on equity market outages, while ASIC said all market participants should allow new orders to trade on an alternative market by mid-2023.

  • James Eyers

February 2022

ANZ said it could not process real-time payments for 16 hours over the three months to December.

ANZ records the longest time for payment outages

Banks have published data on major payment systems going down. ANZ online banking was out for 17 hours in the December quarter.

  • Updated
  • James Eyers

December 2021

Jason Yetton: “I would think it [wealth platforms] is a pretty attractive, high-growth market for people to be interested in.”

Westpac ready to kick off Panorama sale

Jason Yetton, who is running Westpac’s asset sales, says several parties are keen on BT Super and the sale of the Panorama platform will begin in late February.

  • James Eyers