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Telstra Faces Millions in Penalties
17 Jul
Summary
- ACMA may seek civil penalties up to $30 million per breach.
- Telstra received outage notification over 45 minutes late.
- Firmware update was ignored for years on critical device.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is poised to seek significant civil penalties against Telstra, potentially reaching $30 million for each regulatory breach related to a recent network outage. ACMA Chair Nerida O'Loughlin indicated that if the investigation reveals substantial non-compliance, legal action in the Federal Court is a possibility. This follows a hearing where it was revealed Telstra notified the Triple Zero Custodian more than 45 minutes after internal detection of the outage. Officials expressed surprise at this timeline, as they were alerted much later than Telstra's own initial awareness.
Further scrutiny has focused on a critical server, identified as an SSU 2000, which failed during the outage. Telstra confirmed that a crucial firmware update, recommended by the manufacturer as early as 2020 and reiterated in subsequent years, was never installed on the device. This omission, coupled with a concession that newer hardware would have prevented the issue, suggests the outage was avoidable. Telstra is communicating with 8.8 million customers, with compensation likely issued as bill credits rather than cash payments.
