Borrow
Why did the banking apps of the major banks crash?
After an outage took down mobile banking services for CBA, ANZ and Westpac customers earlier this week, it’s worth taking the time to understand why these kinds of mass disruptions are becoming more common in an increasingly online world.
Why did the banking apps of the major banks crash?
After an outage took down mobile banking services for CBA, ANZ and Westpac customers earlier this week, it’s worth taking the time to understand why these kinds of mass disruptions are becoming more common in an increasingly online world.
Yesterday’s outage comes only a week after issues with content delivery platform Fastly took major media outlets like CNN, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian and The New York Times offline.
Sources told nestegg that the issue was “related to an external provider”, and in the 24 hours since the outage, cloud-based content delivery network provider Akamai has acknowledged responsibility.
Like Fastly, Akamai is a cloud-based content delivery network (CDN) solution that is used by large companies to deliver large volumes of data with low latency.
What is a CDN?
A content delivery network is an internet infrastructure solution that effectively solves the problem of long load times for users who attempt to access a website or web application at the wrong time or from the wrong place.
CDNs like Akamai opt for a cloud-based setup, where users looking to connect to a specific site or service are seamlessly redirected to a content delivery node that matches their geographical location. If you’re connecting from Singapore, you’ll use a different node to those connecting via Australia.
How much of the internet uses CDNs?
According to Akamai, over half of the internet’s traffic is served by a content delivery network of some kind.
There are a number of practical and business reasons why this is the case. The simplest explanation is that, when deployed correctly, CDNs offer a competitive edge to websites and web-based applications and services via faster load times over those that do not.
How does Akamai fit into the CDN market?
Akamai isn’t the only CDN out there, even if it is one of the major ones. According to Datanyze, they accounted for just 0.57 per cent of the global CDN market in 2020.
Other CDNs include Cloudflare, Fastly, Google Hosted Library and Amazon CloudFront.
What went wrong yesterday?
Multiple sources have attributed yesterday’s outage to issues with Akamai's distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) mitigation platform.
Called Prolexic, this platform promises to help keep cloud-based infrastructure like that powering the CBA mobile banking app secure and stable by deflecting against DDoS attacks.
DDoS attacks are a form of cyber attack used by hackers and other malicious online actors.
In a statement issued following the outage, Akamai confirmed that it “experienced an outage for one of its Prolexic DDoS services (Routed 3.0) starting at 4.20am UTC. We detected the issue immediately, and impacted customers received an error alert within seconds. The impact was limited to Akamai customers using version 3.0 of the Routed service.”
“The issue was not caused by a system update or a cyber attack. A routing table value used by this particular service was inadvertently exceeded. The effect was an unanticipated disruption of service.”
“We recognise the impact of this issue, and we extend our apologies to our customers and any of their end users who were affected,” the company said.
RELATED ARTICLES
About the author
About the author
Banking
ANZ’s company-borrower mortgage clampdown: a risk reset with wide spillovers for SMEs, investors and non-banks
ANZ has tightened credit settings for home loans where the borrowing entity is a company — a narrow policy change with broad commercial consequences. It signals a shift in risk appetite across ...Read more
Banking
CBA’s investor-loan win signals a new phase in Australia’s mortgage machine
Commonwealth Bank’s outperformance in investor mortgages isn’t just a leaderboard moment; it’s a proxy for who owns the next growth leg in a broker‑led, increasingly digital mortgage marketRead more
Banking
A divided Big Four signals a two-track 2026: how to profit from rate uncertainty
Australia’s largest banks can’t agree on where the cash rate lands in 2026 — a split that matters more than the number itself. When the price of money is ambiguous, strategy becomes a game of ...Read more
Banking
Brokers own the mortgage funnel: Why a 77% share is reshaping bank strategy in Australia
Australia’s mortgage market has quietly consolidated around one gatekeeper: the broker. With brokers facilitating roughly 77% of new home loans, distribution power has migrated from bank branches to ...Read more
Banking
Commonwealth Bank leads consideration while People First Bank tops satisfaction in YouGov’s latest rankings
In a revealing snapshot of Australia's banking landscape, the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has emerged as the most considered financial institution among prospective customers, according to YouGov's ...Read more
Banking
End of the easing: what a major bank’s call signals for Australian balance sheets
A major Australian bank now argues the Reserve Bank’s rate-cut run has hit a pause, resetting the risk-free rate narrative across corporate Australia. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest Statement ...Read more
Banking
Open banking, real returns: How an Australian brokerage turned CDR data into deal velocity
Open banking is no longer a whiteboard theory—it’s a working growth engine. This case study unpacks how a mid-sized Australian brokerage (“Pink Finance”) operationalised Consumer Data Right (CDR) data ...Read more
Banking
Open banking’s quiet revolution: how one broker’s data play rewrites speed, trust and margin
Open banking is shifting from compliance cost to commercial engine, and early adopters in Australia’s broking market are already monetising the curve. The playbook: consented bank-grade data piped ...Read more
Banking
ANZ’s company-borrower mortgage clampdown: a risk reset with wide spillovers for SMEs, investors and non-banks
ANZ has tightened credit settings for home loans where the borrowing entity is a company — a narrow policy change with broad commercial consequences. It signals a shift in risk appetite across ...Read more
Banking
CBA’s investor-loan win signals a new phase in Australia’s mortgage machine
Commonwealth Bank’s outperformance in investor mortgages isn’t just a leaderboard moment; it’s a proxy for who owns the next growth leg in a broker‑led, increasingly digital mortgage marketRead more
Banking
A divided Big Four signals a two-track 2026: how to profit from rate uncertainty
Australia’s largest banks can’t agree on where the cash rate lands in 2026 — a split that matters more than the number itself. When the price of money is ambiguous, strategy becomes a game of ...Read more
Banking
Brokers own the mortgage funnel: Why a 77% share is reshaping bank strategy in Australia
Australia’s mortgage market has quietly consolidated around one gatekeeper: the broker. With brokers facilitating roughly 77% of new home loans, distribution power has migrated from bank branches to ...Read more
Banking
Commonwealth Bank leads consideration while People First Bank tops satisfaction in YouGov’s latest rankings
In a revealing snapshot of Australia's banking landscape, the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has emerged as the most considered financial institution among prospective customers, according to YouGov's ...Read more
Banking
End of the easing: what a major bank’s call signals for Australian balance sheets
A major Australian bank now argues the Reserve Bank’s rate-cut run has hit a pause, resetting the risk-free rate narrative across corporate Australia. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest Statement ...Read more
Banking
Open banking, real returns: How an Australian brokerage turned CDR data into deal velocity
Open banking is no longer a whiteboard theory—it’s a working growth engine. This case study unpacks how a mid-sized Australian brokerage (“Pink Finance”) operationalised Consumer Data Right (CDR) data ...Read more
Banking
Open banking’s quiet revolution: how one broker’s data play rewrites speed, trust and margin
Open banking is shifting from compliance cost to commercial engine, and early adopters in Australia’s broking market are already monetising the curve. The playbook: consented bank-grade data piped ...Read more
