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The countrywide outage affected millions earlier this month
Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, CEO of Australian telco Optus has resigned from her position of three years after a countrywide network failure this month left millions without connectivity.
The network failure on 8th November left nearly half of Australia’s population of 26 million without mobile or internets services for over 12 hours. This caused issues such as emergency service blockages, transport delays and payment delays. Singapore based operator Singtel, who own Optus, said last week a fault in Optus’ security systems caused the failure, not a routine software upgrade as previously suspected.
Bayer Rosmarin was also leading Optus when the firm suffered a huge data breach last September, which left 10 million Australians with their personal data exposed, turning out to be one of the country’s biggest every cyber-attacks. Her dealings of both circumstances have been widely criticised, leading to calls for her resignation.
“Having now had time for some personal reflection, I have come to the decision that my resignation is in the best interest of Optus moving forward,” said Bayer Rosmarin today.
Michael Venter, the current Chief Financial Officer will assume the CEO position temporarily while a permanent replacement is found.
Singtel understood her decision to resign, noting, “We recognise the need for Optus to regain customer trust and confidence… Optus’ priority is about setting on a path of renewal for the benefit of the community and customers,” said Yuen Kuan Moon, Singtel’s Managing Director.
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