Opinion

The Optus outage wasn’t a hack. Here’s why we’re screwed if it had been

Wednesday was a relatively benign disruption in comparison to a hostile state-based attacking, and we went into meltdown.

Paul SmithTechnology editor

Nov 8, 2023 – 6.50pm

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Optus’ chaotic outage on Wednesday wasn’t cyber warfare, but it showed why we should all fear it, and why there is still a lot of work to be done in co-ordinating the response when critical digital infrastructure suddenly stops working.

The country’s second-largest telecommunications provider went dark (or orange) just before 4am Sydney time on Wednesday, and services didn’t start limping back online until after 1pm.

Paul Smith edits the technology coverage and has been a leading writer on the sector for 20 years. He covers big tech, business use of tech, the fast-growing Australian tech industry and start-ups, telecommunications and national innovation policy.