Human Error Kills Three: Optus Blues Continue with $100m Penalty and CEO Under Fire
- Optus chief Stephen Rue admits human error caused Triple-0 breakdown, resulting in three deaths
- Security breach sparked during botched firewall upgrade, preventing hundreds of emergency calls from reaching services
- CEO Rue reaches out to families of victims, as company faces $100m penalty for “appalling and predatory” sales practices
Optus has been rocked by a devastating admission: human error was to blame for the catastrophic Triple-0 breakdown that claimed three lives. In a startling revelation, CEO Stephen Rue confessed that a botched firewall upgrade led to the 13-hour outage, which prevented hundreds of emergency calls from reaching services in South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory.
Rue, who was appointed to “right the ship” after a string of scandals, including a previous major Optus outage in 2023, has taken responsibility for the debacle, saying, “To be very clear, this is a process issue. This is a process breakdown. The first step in the standard process was not followed.” He added that the breakdown was a “result of human error in terms of the instructions provided.”
The emotional toll of the tragedy is still unfolding, with Rue reaching out to police in WA and SA for guidance on how to engage with the families of the three people who lost their lives. The victims were a 68-year-old woman from Adelaide and two men, aged 74 and 49, from Perth.
As the fall-out continues, Singtel Group, Optus’ parent company, has defied calls to sack Rue, with CEO Yuen Kuan Moon saying, “Our hearts go out to the families and friends of those who have passed away, and we know that Optus will get to the bottom of this matter.”
In a separate development, the Federal Court has approved a $100 million penalty for Optus over “appalling and predatory” conduct in its sales practices. The company admitted its sales staff acted unconscionably when selling phones and contracts to vulnerable customers, including Indigenous and intellectually disabled people.
As Optus grapples with the consequences of its failures, an independent review led by distinguished businesswoman Kerry Schott will examine the causes of the outage, the operational management of Triple-zero calls on the Optus network, and the company’s response to the incident.