Telstra Faces Inquiry After Obsolete Server Triggers Outage
Synopsis
The company could face up to $30 million in penalties after a known fault in an ageing server caused widespread service disruptions.
Key Highlights
- Outdated Symmetricom SyncServer S300 identified as the cause of Telstra’s outage.
- A server costing less than $30,000 could leave Telstra facing fines of as much as $30 million.
- Telstra executives to front a Senate inquiry with CEO Vicki Brady admitting the bug was known.
A $30,000 obsolete server has been blamed for the Telstra outage last week, which may now expose the telecommunications company to fines of up to $30 million under tighter legislation introduced after Optus’ outages.
The foul-up has been attributed to an end-of-life Symmetricom SyncServer S300 time synchronisation server. It comes as Telstra CEO Vicki Brady revealed the telco had known about a GPS rollover bug with the server, but did not replace it.
This week Telstra executives are due to appear before a Senate Environment and Communications References Committee hearing to respond to how the outage happened and what is being done to ensure it never happens again.
The failure partially disabled the Triple Zero emergency system, alongside affecting mobile services, payment terminals and train services. Telstra later revealed that it was able to do SMS and phone welfare checks with 639 Triple Zero callers who were unable to connect during the outage, referring 170 of them to police and seven to emergency services organisations.
Leads to GPS Rollover Bug in an Obsolete Server Scenario
It was a Symmetricom SyncServer S300 node that managed time synchronisation over the network that caused the outage. Because of a well-known GPS rollover bug, the device resets its 10-bit week counter every 1,024 weeks and reverts to the year 2006. Discontinued in 2016, the SyncServer S300 was still available for less than $30,000.
Education Minister Jason Clare said if the education department had not replaced the server, it could face a maximum fine of $30 million, and Communications Minister Anika Wells told reporters in Canberra that Telstra had “a lot of questions to answer”.
Increase in Mobile Network Reliability Calls
The outage has reignited calls for compulsory domestic mobile roaming, which would allow customers to automatically hand off to another Australian mobile network in times of outages.
Consumer group ACCAN said other new research suggested 8per cent of consumers had struggled to contact Triple Zero because of a mobile outage in the past year, and 43per cent were worried about reliability when making emergency calls. It also identified that four in 10 (73%) of respondents did not know these emergency camp-on arrangements were already taking place.
Telstra has said businesses and consumers who lost money due to the outage can lodge compensation claims, which will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Source: ICS
At Inspirepreneurs Magazine, covering entrepreneurship, business failures, and the human stories behind the world's most ambitious founders. She writes at the intersection of strategy and storytelling.
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