Alert SA safety app failed after becoming overwhelmed by basic weather data

A CRUCIAL phone app providing live information about bushfires and natural disasters crashed because of weather data being updated every 60 seconds.

• Alert SA safety app fails during first major bushfire event of season

A PHONE app designed to provide live information on bushfires and natural disasters was unable to cope with weather data sent by emergency services during a day of extreme fire danger, causing the system to crash for up to five hours.

The Alert SA app was designed to provide live information for people across the state including those in the paths of bushfires and other natural disasters.

On October 27 and 29, as 43 fires burned across the state threatening properties, the Alert SA app failed for up to five hours — during the first major bushfire event of the season.

A report commissioned by SAFECOM and conducted by Ernst and Young, identified the cause of the failure as “problematic data” that flooded into a system not adequately designed to cope with the flow of information.

The report narrowed in on updates issued by the Bureau of Meteorology and updated by the CFS every 60 seconds, providing information on total fire bans and bushfire danger ratings.

The flow of data from BOM was programmed into the system and the report concluded that there were shortcomings in the system’s ability to handle the frequency of updates.

The report concluded several factors in the design process had contributed to the crash:

CONFUSION over which organisation, SAFECOM or RIPE Intelligence — the company that designed the app — had responsibility for data handling. When the crash took place neither party had taken responsibility.

EXPECTATIONS during design of the system was that it would be able to handle CFS and BOM updates every 60 seconds, however under review the system was found to be incapable and RIPE was under no contractual obligation to make sure the system was able to do so.

SAFECOM have identified a “a gap with transparency in and ability to monitor” the Alert SA app and are investigating whether a third-party company is needed to monitor the data flow.

The report raised concerns that SAFECOM was not able to dictate how agencies providing live information, like CFS and BOM, structured their data to better suit the app.

The report recommended the updates be shifted to every three hours, rather than every 60 seconds.

While a preliminary reason for the Alert SA crash was identified, the authors of the report cited “time and resource constrains” as the reason the report did not produce a “more detailed and definitive root cause analysis”.

Emergency Services Minister Chris Picton said that no technology could ever be expected to work all the time.

“There is no 100 per cent guarantee with any kind of technology,” Mr Picton said.

“That is why we make sure any information that we provide to the public on bushfire risks and emergencies recommends that people look at multiple avenues of technology.

“Whether that be television, battery powered radio or social media. It is important that you have a variety of ways to get information during an emergency.”

Mr Picton said the failure of the system was worrying, but was confident work had been done to fix the issues.

“I am concerned that those issues were identified in the first place and that the app did not work appropriately, the website was working through that period but there were a number of hours when the app wasn’t working which is obviously a concern,” Mr Picton said.

“All the risks that have been identified have been resolved working between the agencies and the software company.

“I have asked SAFECOM to improve their surveillance of the app. and ensure that issues of communication between the company and SAFECOM have been resolved.

Opposition emergency services spokesman Stephan Knoll said the failure was putting lives at risk.

“The Alert SA app failed at the moment when South Australians, especially country South Australians, needed it most and there is no guarantee that this won’t happen again,” Mr Knoll said.

“The report concludes that there is no guarantee that this issue won’t happen again, the report appears rushed and raises more questions than what it answers.”

The report has recommended that the SAFECOM’s data handling ability be improved to prevent the system failing again over summer.