[LINK] Bank Systems Fail

[Tom Worthington]

The Australian Financial Review this morning reported that "CBA's 
electronic system fails" (John Breusch, Jan 5) 
<http://afr.com/financialservices/>:

>Commonwealth Bank was embarrassed by a technical glitch on Thursday 
>afternoon which caused its entire electronic banking network - including 
>ATMs, Eftpos, telephone banking and some branch services - to close across 
>the country.

This morning I was interviewed on 2GB Sydney about it and did a bit of 
homework using the "Risks" discussion group 
<http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/>, showing that this is not such an unusual 
occurrence:

* Power surge hits telephones and data comms John Colville 
<colville@socs.uts.edu.au> Wed, 5 Aug 1998 11:18:18 +1000 (EST) 
http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/19.90.html#subj7.1

> >From *Sydney Morning Herald*, 5 Aug 1998, p2:
>
>Electronic chaos as exchange overloads by Andrew Cassell [with JC 
>additions from ABC radio]
>
>Bank computers crashed and data and fax lines were cut across the State
>yesterday when a power surge hit Telstra's Haymarket exchange in the city.
>The breakdown created extra queues at banks as computers, automatic teller
>machines and EFTPOS outlets failed.  TAB [off course betting] agencies
>around the State were also affected and 3,500 Telstra customers in Mascot
>and 400 in Randwick lost phone services...

* Australian ATMs... [Another version!] Dave Horsfall 
<munnari!astra.necisa.oz!dave@seismo.CSS.GOV> 11 Jun 87 09:29:38 +1000 
(Thu) http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/5.03.html#subj1.3

>Although stories about bank ATM's swallowing customer's money are common
>enough, you don't see too many stories about the opposite situation
>happening.  Here is a story from the "Sydney Morning Herald" (Sydney,
>Australia) dated Friday 5th June:
>
>   The day Westpac's computer gave away money
>
>   Westpac Banking Corporation is believed to have lost millions of dollars
>   in international transactions, and will be forced to recover an undisclosed
>   amount from customers who withdrew unauthorised cash from automatic teller
>   machines, following a serious fault in the bank's computer system...



Tom Worthington FACS tom.worthington@tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd ABN: 17 088 714 309
http://www.tomw.net.au PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617
Visiting Fellow, Computer Science, Australian National University
Publications Director & Past President, Australian Computer Society
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