Optus Under Fire After Fatal Outage Emails Sent to Wrong Government Address
One of Australia’s largest telecommunications companies, Optus, is facing renewed backlash after it was revealed that crucial emails about a deadly network outage were mistakenly sent to the wrong government address — and went unread for more than a day.
During a parliamentary hearing this week, officials disclosed that the emails — meant for the Department of Communications — were misdirected, leaving authorities unaware of the severity of the outage that has since been linked to four deaths, including that of an eight-week-old baby who could not reach emergency services.
Emails Sent to Wrong Inbox as Emergency Calls Failed
The parliamentary inquiry heard that Optus sent its first notification email about the outage at 2:45 p.m. on 18 September, followed by another just seven minutes later, claiming the problem had been fixed and that only 10 calls were affected.
In reality, however, more than 600 calls to emergency services (triple zero) failed during the 13-hour outage — a critical lapse that prevented Australians from reaching help during medical and life-threatening situations.
Authorities were unaware of the full scale of the problem until the next afternoon, more than 36 hours after the outage began, when the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) — the national industry regulator — raised the alarm.
“That communication was sent to the wrong address,” said James Chisholm, Deputy Secretary for Communications, during Wednesday’s parliamentary hearing. “We have told industry multiple times that this particular address is not to be used for notifications.”
A Costly Email Error with Deadly Consequences
The federal communications department confirmed that the email address Optus used had been changed just a week before the outage. However, all telecom providers had been informed about the change two weeks prior.
Senators questioned why no automatic email response was set up to alert senders that the old address was no longer active. Chisholm acknowledged the oversight but emphasized that Optus had breached existing laws requiring telecom companies to redirect emergency calls to other networks during outages.
“The law is clear,” Chisholm stated. “Telcos are obligated to ensure triple-zero calls are rerouted when their systems fail. That did not happen in this case.”
Outage Triggered by Firewall Upgrade Gone Wrong
Following the incident, Optus said the outage occurred due to a deviation from standard procedures during a routine firewall upgrade. The upgrade disrupted the network’s routing systems, knocking out both mobile and landline services across multiple regions.
The failure not only blocked emergency calls but also left hospitals, small businesses, and transport systems offline for hours, adding to the chaos.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority and other regulators are now investigating whether Optus — wholly owned by Singapore-based Singtel — breached national telecommunications laws.
Singapore Responds: Condolences and Accountability
The controversy has even reached Singapore’s leadership, as Prime Minister Lawrence Wong — currently on an official visit to Australia — expressed condolences over the tragedy.
“I understand fully the anger, frustration, and outrage at what has happened,” Wong said in Canberra on Wednesday. “It is tragic that four lives were lost because of it.”
He added that Singapore expects its companies to uphold their responsibilities:
“From a government’s perspective, we expect our companies to act responsibly. We will ensure Singtel and Optus comply with all laws and cooperate fully with the investigation.”
Singtel’s majority stakeholder, Temasek Holdings, is a Singapore state-owned investment fund that holds a 51% stake in the telecom giant.
A Pattern of Failure and Public Distrust
This latest scandal adds to a growing list of controversies surrounding Optus in recent years.
In 2022, the company suffered one of Australia’s largest cyberattacks, which exposed sensitive personal data from millions of customers — including passport and driver’s licence numbers. The fallout prompted widespread criticism over how the company handled cybersecurity and crisis communication.
A year later, in 2023, a nationwide outage left millions of Australians without mobile and internet access for up to 12 hours, crippling businesses, hospitals, and public transport.
The company’s former CEO, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, resigned later that year amid mounting public and political pressure over the outage and the firm’s crisis response.
Now, Optus’s current CEO, Stephen Rue, is facing similar calls to step down, as critics and lawmakers question the company’s leadership and reliability.
Several Australian politicians have gone further, suggesting that Optus should be stripped of its operating licence if it cannot guarantee the safety and functionality of essential services such as emergency communications.
Government and Industry Under Pressure to Act
The Australian government has vowed to tighten oversight of the telecommunications industry following the incident. Lawmakers are pushing for stricter compliance checks and mandatory real-time reporting of emergency call failures.
Experts say the tragedy highlights a systemic issue in the industry — a dangerous overreliance on automated systems and a lack of redundancy in national communications infrastructure.
“Outages happen, but what makes this different is the failure to alert authorities promptly,” said one cybersecurity analyst. “A single email error should never result in lost lives.”
As investigations continue, families of the victims and advocacy groups are demanding greater accountability and transparency from both Optus and the government agencies responsible for oversight.
“This wasn’t just a technical glitch — it was a preventable failure,” one lawmaker said during the hearing. “Four Australians are dead because of it. That is unacceptable.”
Looking Ahead
The Optus email blunder has reignited a national conversation about corporate accountability, data transparency, and the need for reliable infrastructure in critical sectors like telecommunications.
With the company already under multiple investigations and facing public outrage, Optus must now rebuild trust in a market increasingly skeptical of its competence.
For the families affected, however, no apology or inquiry can undo what was lost. The deadly outage stands as a stark reminder that in the digital age, even small missteps — like an email sent to the wrong inbox — can have devastating human consequences.