How Telstra’s outage just exposed ‘a sobering reality’ for millions

Telstra’s outage has exposed a glaring issue with the nation’s reliance on fragile infrastructure, after trains were left stranded and millions were unable to make even a simple phone call or payment.

The widespread blackout reportedly left thousands of users with zero bars of coverage, with SOS or satellite options showing for emergency calls.

Payment solution Tyro was affected, a system that about 80,000 businesses rely on for customer transactions.

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The blackout also interrupted transport in Victoria and NSW, with regional services across both states brought to a standstill due to radio network faults and payment issues.

Griffith University business and consumer expert Professor Graeme Hughes said that the economy’s reliance on such a fallible system reveals “a sobering reality”.

“The question is no longer whether Australians can make phone calls, but whether the economy can function when a single network fails,” he said.

“Within hours, Victoria’s regional rail network was suspended, payment terminals serving roughly 80,000 businesses were disrupted, and taxi passengers were left unable to pay their fares.”

Hughes said the fact that a single bungle by one service provider had caused such chaos meant that a cyberattack could have proved even more devastating.

“A deliberate, sustained attack on a provider like Telstra would not need to compromise every system to cause severe economic damage,” he said.

“Too much of daily commerce, transport, and logistics now relies on a single mobile network without mandated, automated failover.

“The lesson for policymakers here is that mobile connectivity is critical economic infrastructure and must be regulated as such.”

Telstra CFO Michael Ackland said on Wednesday there was no evidence of “malicious activity” as the cause of the outage, which was being traced to several servers inside data centres in Sydney and Melbourne.

Despite the reassurance, experts warned that the network was a “lucrative target” for cybercriminals.

“A well-planned cyberattack on Telstra will be just another way of saying an attack on our national security,” cybersecurity expert Dr Mohiuddin Ahmed said.

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Centre for Data Analytics and Cognition at La Trobe University deputy director Professor Daswin De Silva echoed a similar sentiment, noting that telecom outages were becoming alarmingly frequent.

“Telecommunications is one of our critical infrastructure sectors that has systemic impact across the economy, society and national security, including emergency services and healthcare, to banking and transport networks,” De Silva said.

Last month, Vodafone suffered a minor outage. A more severe incident occurred in September when an Optus outage blocked hundreds of emergency calls, leaving multiple people unable to connect to Triple Zero.

Three deaths were later linked to the event after hundreds of Triple Zero calls across South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory failed to connect.

Communications Minister Anika Wells confirmed that some emergency calls made from affected devices failed during Wednesday’s outage.

“These are being now investigated by Telstra, and welfare checks are in progress, as is required by the law,” Wells said.

When asked by a reporter, she said Telstra was performing “about three dozen” welfare checks.

By late on Wednesday afternoon, Telstra said it had fully resolved the outage.