– We risk that someone will die without them having the opportunity to get the help they should have received, says Sintef researcher Maria Bartnes. The problems lasted for several hours and on Wednesday afternoon not all systems were still up and running as normal. – It is a very, very long time if we are talking about saving lives, says Bartnes. Sintef researcher Maria Bartnes believes that downtime can be about life and death. Photo: NTNU She is head of research at Sintef Digital and heads a department within system development and security. Power outage – We had a power outage at a switchboard, and we have to get to the bottom of it. The situation here is not acceptable, so we can only regret it in the strongest possible terms, says Telenor coverage manager Bjørn Amundsen to news. Four times in four months the emergency numbers have been down, and this time they were down for several hours and that should not happen, according to Telenor. – We have to get to the bottom of the root cause, says coverage director Bjørn Amundsen at Telenor. Photo: Telenor – There are different reasons behind these four incidents, so you cannot say that the first incident has anything to do with the last. So that may not be reassuring in itself, but what we have focused on is getting the services up and running again. The emergency numbers 110, 112 and 113 can all be trusted to work when you need help. – And they can’t be missing for many hours? – No, and that’s why we immediately set up a crisis team on this here and freed up all available resources to solve the problem. Then we have to use the time to find the real root cause of how this could have those consequences, says Bjørn Amundsen. The backup solution failed The power cut today also caused the backup battery to fail. Several experts are critical of the fact that there are not enough good backup solutions in place when Telenor gets into trouble. – There is not sufficient redundancy in the network to handle errors that occur in individual areas, says Ellingsen. – This case shows the vulnerability we have in society, says Pål Ellingsen, Pål Ellingsen is head of department for computer technology, electrical technology and science at HVL. Photo: HVL He is the head of department for computer technology, electrical technology and science at the Norwegian University of Applied Sciences. Redundancy means that you have a backup solution that takes over if the main solution fails. That way, the service will work even if an error occurs, explains Maria Bartnes. – For socially critical services, there will usually be requirements for redundancy, so that a single error does not lead to the service not working, she says. Fourth time this autumn According to the National Communications Authority (Nkom), this is the fourth time this autumn that Telenor has had problems. – It is very serious and something that we believe is unacceptable to happen again. Because this has happened several times this autumn, says director of Nkom, Jon-Eivind Velure. news has asked Nkom whether they have required backup solutions for the emergency numbers. They say that they set requirements for “adequate security and redundancy”. – If a demand has been made, it seems as if the demand has not been met, says Bartnes. Notice of inspection The Director of the National Communications Authority says they are taking the incident very seriously. Photo: Vetle Hjortland – The emergency services must assess whether their systems and the number of suppliers are sufficiently robust, says Velure. Nkom announced in September that they would supervise Telenor, after the emergency number was down for several hours. They have so far not reached a conclusion, but say that today’s incident will also be part of the inspection. – The inspection is ongoing. It is linked to the events that have come before, and of course we will include this event that is going on right now, says Velure. Nkom is now assessing what needs to be done to ensure that similar incidents do not happen again. – Whether to have more suppliers of this type of service is something we will look at and which we encourage those who buy services to do. In other words, if you are dependent on one person, you have some vulnerabilities that you can reduce if you have more people to rely on, says Velure. Open to change Telenor believes that it is not certain that more suppliers would have solved the current problems, but is open to discussing such a solution. – We are completely open to that idea and it is entirely up to the authorities to decide how this should be resolved, says coverage director Bjørn Amundsen. In Northern Norway, the failure has had consequences for communication in several hospitals in Northern Norway. On Wednesday afternoon, several hospitals in the region are on red alert. Not acceptable – We cannot accept such mistakes, says Minister for Digitization Karianne Tung (Ap) to news. She says that everyone must be sure that they get through both on the emergency notification services and the mobile network. – The emergency network must have 100% uptime, says digitization minister Karianne Tung (Ap) Photo: Hanna Johre / Hanna Johre The Storting recently passed a new law that requires Telenor and other players to ensure that they have adequate security. After the first incident in August, the government asked Nkom to follow Telenor closely and start investigations into how such errors can occur, what is happening and what the consequences of the error are. – Today’s incident is the most serious and will also be included in these investigations. When we get that report back, I will assess all measures to ensure that we close the gaps that exist, says Karianne Tung. Published 13.11.2024, at 19.06 Updated 13.11.2024, at 21.29
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– Unacceptable that it happens again – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
