Lessons learnt from the Optus outage

We reckon that there are two big lessons for all of us that have resulted from the Optus outage.

Lesson 1 - Our dependence on functioning telephony and data networks

The breadth of the impact has been enormous and our dependence on all things digital will increase over time. The use of multi-factor authentication to verify your identity using your mobile phone made the outage even more impactful. Here are useful ideas we have collected in the last few days which will help reduce the impact of the next outage:

• Paul Budde’s recommendation that we should be able to roam on the network we normally do not use (pretend you’re overseas during the outage of your BAU provider).

• Great Vox article on ensuring you can survive if you lose access to your mobile.

Lesson 2 – Good crisis communications is critical

The importance of clear and effective crisis communications is essential to maintaining your good reputation. Even though Optus last year was subject to a major cyber-attack that impacted many customers, it has not improved its ability to communicate. Madonna King neatly sums up the essentials of good crisis communications management:

• Communicate quickly and stay on the front foot.

• Be clear and don’t sell.

• Be sincere.

• Be mindful of the impact on your stakeholders.

Incredibly, telcos are currently not part of the Federal Government’s Security of Critical Infrastructure Act (SoCI) !

Another interesting AFR article comparing the treatment of Optus and DP world in the press.