Telstra blames missing software update and undocumented design change for massive outage

The brief

Telstra has attributed a recent nationwide outage to a missing software update and an undocumented design change. The outage, which occurred last week, caused widespread disruptions to mobile services, transport systems, retailers, and electric-vehicle charging. Telstra stated that a maintenance team was unaware of a design change that affected how a key time-keeping system would reset, leading to the incorrect date being propagated across the network. The company has three Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers, with one in Melbourne being shut down and restarted, resulting in the incorrect date being used. Telstra has taken full accountability for the outage and is investigating the cause. The company will appear before a Senate inquiry on Friday to explain the incident.