Published Date: 2020-12-03
| Postmortem Analysis | |
|---|---|
| Timeline | 1. The software failure incident happened in November 2020 [109408]. |
| System | The system that failed in the software failure incident reported in Article 109408 was: 1. Tailor Made Combinations (TMC) order book functionality [109408] |
| Responsible Organization | 1. Nasdaq Inc 2. ASX Ltd 3. Technology provider Nasdaq [Cited Article: 109408] |
| Impacted Organization | 1. Australian stock exchange (ASX) and its customers were impacted by the software failure incident [109408]. |
| Software Causes | 1. The software causes of the failure incident were identified as a software issue that caused incorrect functionality in the tailor-made combinations (TMC) order book, as reported by Nasdaq and ASX [109408]. |
| Non-software Causes | 1. The outage wiped out nearly a full session of trading at the Australian stock exchange [109408]. |
| Impacts | 1. The software failure incident led to a complete session of trading being wiped out on the Australian stock exchange, impacting ASX, its customers, and all those involved [109408]. |
| Preventions | 1. Implementing thorough software testing procedures before deploying updates or changes to production systems could have potentially prevented the software failure incident [109408]. 2. Conducting regular audits and reviews of the trading systems' software codebase to identify and address any potential vulnerabilities or bugs that could lead to such outages [109408]. 3. Enhancing communication and coordination between ASX and its technology provider Nasdaq to ensure a seamless integration of software updates and changes without introducing critical issues [109408]. |
| Fixes | 1. Implementing a fix for the software issue causing incorrect functionality in the tailor-made combinations (TMC) order book [109408]. | References | 1. Nasdaq Inc 2. ASX Ltd 3. Australia's central bank 4. Corporate regulator 5. Reuters 6. Shruti Sonal (Reporter) 7. Adena Friedman (Nasdaq Chief Executive Officer) [109408] |
| Category | Option | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Recurring | unknown | (a) The software failure incident related to the Australian stock exchange outage was specific to ASX Ltd and its trading systems. Nasdaq, the technology provider for ASX, identified the root cause of the outage as a software issue affecting the tailor-made combinations (TMC) order book [109408]. This incident did not mention similar failures happening again within the same organization. (b) The software failure incident at the Australian stock exchange involving the TMC order book issue was not reported to have happened at multiple organizations. The focus was on ASX Ltd and Nasdaq addressing the root cause of the software problem to prevent future outages [109408]. |
| Phase (Design/Operation) | design | (a) The software failure incident in the Australian stock exchange outage was attributed to a software issue that caused incorrect functionality in the tailor-made combinations (TMC) order book. This indicates a failure related to the design phase, where contributing factors introduced during system development led to the glitch [109408]. (b) The article does not provide specific information about the software failure incident being related to factors introduced by the operation or misuse of the system. |
| Boundary (Internal/External) | within_system | The software failure incident at the Australian stock exchange was within_system. Nasdaq and ASX identified the root cause of the outage as a software issue that caused incorrect functionality in the tailor-made combinations (TMC) order book, which is a tool primarily used by retail and institutional traders of equity derivatives [109408]. |
| Nature (Human/Non-human) | non-human_actions | (a) The software failure incident in the Australian stock exchange outage was attributed to a software issue that caused incorrect functionality in the tailor-made combinations (TMC) order book. This indicates a failure due to contributing factors introduced without human participation [109408]. (b) The article does not provide specific information indicating that the software failure incident was due to contributing factors introduced by human actions. |
| Dimension (Hardware/Software) | software | (a) The software failure incident in the Australian stock exchange outage was attributed to a software issue that caused incorrect functionality in the tailor-made combinations (TMC) order book. This indicates that the failure originated in the software rather than in the hardware [109408]. |
| Objective (Malicious/Non-malicious) | non-malicious | (a) The software failure incident in this case was non-malicious. The outage that occurred on the Australian stock exchange was attributed to a software issue that caused incorrect functionality in the tailor-made combinations (TMC) order book. Both ASX Ltd and Nasdaq identified the root cause of the outage as a software issue, indicating that the failure was not due to malicious intent but rather a technical glitch [109408]. |
| Intent (Poor/Accidental Decisions) | poor_decisions | (a) The software failure incident at the Australian stock exchange was attributed to a software issue that caused incorrect functionality in the tailor-made combinations (TMC) order book. This indicates that the failure was due to contributing factors introduced by poor decisions related to the software development or implementation process [109408]. |
| Capability (Incompetence/Accidental) | development_incompetence | (a) The software failure incident in the Australian stock exchange outage was attributed to a software issue that caused incorrect functionality in the tailor-made combinations (TMC) order book. This indicates a failure due to contributing factors introduced due to development incompetence by the technology provider Nasdaq [109408]. (b) The software failure incident was not explicitly mentioned to be accidental in the provided article. |
| Duration | temporary | The software failure incident at the Australian stock exchange was temporary. The outage lasted nearly a full session of trading on November 16, but the root cause was identified as a software issue related to the tailor-made combinations (TMC) order book. ASX and Nasdaq have worked to address the issue and plan to reintroduce some TMC functionality on December 21 [109408]. |
| Behaviour | crash, value | (a) crash: The software failure incident in the ASX outage was due to a crash, as it caused a halt in trading for nearly a full session [109408]. (d) value: The root cause of the outage was identified as a software issue that caused incorrect functionality in the tailor-made combinations (TMC) order book, indicating a failure in performing its intended functions correctly [109408]. |
| Layer | Option | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Perception | processing_unit, embedded_software | (a) sensor: The software failure incident at the Australian stock exchange was not related to a sensor error. The root cause of the outage was identified as a software issue in the tailor-made combinations (TMC) order book, which is a tool primarily used by traders of equity derivatives [109408]. (b) actuator: The software failure incident at the Australian stock exchange was not related to an actuator error. The root cause of the outage was identified as a software issue in the tailor-made combinations (TMC) order book, which is a tool primarily used by traders of equity derivatives [109408]. (c) processing_unit: The software failure incident at the Australian stock exchange was related to a processing error. The outage was caused by a software issue that led to incorrect functionality in the TMC order book, impacting trading on the exchange [109408]. (d) network_communication: The software failure incident at the Australian stock exchange was not related to a network communication error. The root cause of the outage was identified as a software issue in the TMC order book, affecting trading on the exchange [109408]. (e) embedded_software: The software failure incident at the Australian stock exchange was related to an embedded software error. The root cause of the outage was identified as a software issue in the TMC order book, which is a tool used for trading equity derivatives [109408]. |
| Communication | unknown | The software failure incident reported in Article 109408 was not related to the communication layer of the cyber physical system that failed. The root cause of the outage was identified as a software issue that caused incorrect functionality in the tailor-made combinations (TMC) order book, primarily used by retail and institutional traders of equity derivatives [109408]. |
| Application | TRUE | The software failure incident at the Australian stock exchange, as reported in Article 109408, was related to the application layer of the cyber physical system. The root cause of the outage was identified as a software issue that caused incorrect functionality in the tailor-made combinations (TMC) order book. This issue was attributed to a bug or fault in the software, leading to the disruption of trading on Nov. 16. Therefore, this incident aligns with the definition of a failure at the application layer due to contributing factors introduced by bugs, operating system errors, unhandled exceptions, and incorrect usage [109408]. |
| Category | Option | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Consequence | property, delay | The consequence of the software failure incident reported in the articles was a delay. The software issue caused incorrect functionality in the tailor-made combinations (TMC) order book, leading to a halt in trading on the Australian stock exchange on Nov. 16. This outage wiped out nearly a full session of trading, impacting traders and the market [109408]. |
| Domain | finance | The software failure incident reported in Article 109408 was related to the finance industry. The incident occurred at the Australian stock exchange (ASX), impacting trading systems and causing a halt in trading due to a software issue in the tailor-made combinations (TMC) order book, which is primarily used by retail and institutional traders of equity derivatives [109408]. The outage affected the trading session and led to concerns from Australia's central bank and corporate regulator regarding ASX Ltd's trading systems [109408]. Nasdaq, the technology provider for ASX, identified the root cause of the outage as a software issue that affected the functionality of the TMC order book [109408]. |
Article ID: 109408