Australian MPs are warning that a recent national outage suffered by Optus reveals the risks of relying only on digital transactions. The outage, lasting hours on November 8, has significantly affected at least 40,000 businesses and 10 million customers as well as government authorities that were unable to process payments. The blackout has brought into question the benefits of a cashless society.
In addition to mobile, data, and internet services, eftpos (electronic funds transfer at point of sale) devices have been down, rendering many small businesses, coffee shops, bowling alleys, hotels unable to process electronic transactions. Several local councils were similarly impacted, including the MidCoast Council in New South Wales.
Many businesses were unable to operate and had to inform customers of the outage through social media platforms, such as the Berri Hotel and the bowling alley in Orange, New South Wales. The grassroots movement, Cash Welcome also weighed in, advocating the continued use of cash even in a more modern economy.
The effects of the outage have been widespread to the point that members of parliament have urged financial institutions and businesses to maintain access to cash for emergencies and security reasons in the future. Countries with a strong dependency on digital transactions could be vulnerable to massive disruptions in the case of an outage, such as the one experienced by Optus.
Optus CEO, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, apologized for the inconvenience and assured customers that the company was working to restore services as quickly as possible. The communication minister expects progress to be slow but has emphasized that her office has been in close contact with executives at Optus.