Telstra staff unaware of mass outage risk as critical software failure ‘rippled slowly across the network’
Summary
Telstra said a software problem with one of its key time-keeping servers caused a major mobile network outage across Australia. The server reset with the wrong date, which slowly spread errors in security systems, disrupting mobile calls and data for many customers.Key Facts
- The outage was caused by a software update that was not applied to a time-keeping server in Melbourne.
- This server reset incorrectly to the year 2006 during maintenance.
- The wrong date spread across the network, making security certificates invalid.
- Customers had trouble connecting to the mobile network, affecting calls and data.
- Telstra has three time servers in Melbourne, Sydney, and Perth, and the other two worked properly.
- A design change made to fix an earlier problem was not documented, so maintenance staff were unaware of the server’s behavior.
- Telstra took full responsibility and promised to improve controls to prevent future outages.
- The emergency number 000 (triple zero) calls mostly worked, and fixed-line callers on the NBN were not affected.
Read the Full Article
This is a fact-based summary from The Actual News. Click below to read the complete story directly from the original source.
