NT government departments hit by massive network outage

A broad network failure struck all Northern Territory government departments on today, disrupting services from hospitals to policing. The widespread intermittent outage began around 3am and affected all government agencies, spanning urban and remote regions. Initially, NT Police stated that Triple Zero (000) calls were not impacted.

However, later, Assistant Commissioner Terry Zhang revealed that three emergency calls had been missed. Following the start of the breakdown, the NT government identified the problem and projected systems would resume normal operations by this evening. Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro confirmed the outage caused significant disruption to all IT networks within the territory.

She also announced the implementation of mechanisms to maintain business continuity until the root cause of the issue is discovered, which will undergo a thorough inquiry. The Department of Corporate and Digital Development deputy chief executive, Greg Connors, affirmed that a team of up to 40 personnel worked throughout the day to pinpoint the cause of the failure.

Workarounds were put in place this afternoon, effectively restoring functionality. Connors assured that the issue was not a cyber attack, but rather an internal problem akin to a car unexpectedly breaking down without prior warning. While Connors expressed confidence in resolving the matter, he acknowledged that future outages could occur, though they would not be due to the same cause.