Airport computer systems crashed around the globe today. The crash caused passenger delays, angst, and fright among travelers, but a more ominous question has arisen in light of this glitch. Could the next failure be a worldwide power grid outage?
Thousands of travelers were grounded today when a computer glitch took down check-in systems at more than 100 airports worldwide. The crash left passengers waiting in long lines at counters while trying to check-in for their flights. T Amadeus Alta, the company that provides the software, confirmed it is experiencing a “network issue that is causing disruption,” The Telegraph reported.
The glitch affected even massive airports, such London’s Heathrow International Airport, Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, and Ronald Reagan International Airport in Washington, D.C. “Technical teams are working on the problem, services are gradually being restored,” the software company said. After a few hours, officials at Gatwick and Heathrow airports said their systems were “back up and running” after the “momentary IT glitch,” adding there may be a delay due to the outage.
A statement on the glitch read, “A small number of airlines are currently experiencing intermittent issues with their check-in systems at airports around the world — including at Heathrow.” It continued, “Passengers will still be able to check-in for their flight, although the process may take slightly longer than usual.”
Passengers took to social media to complain about the crash.
The @Qantas check in system down. Massive queues in Hong Kong. Not sure why they can't get this right pic.twitter.com/lrL5jUzVEN
— Paul (@paulharapin) September 28, 2017
What is going on @HeathrowAirport with @ThaiAirways checkin, this is quickly becoming a joke!
— Peter White (@peterwhite1997) September 28, 2017
According to Fox News, it is still unclear when all the systems will be back up and running, but it begs the question: what if a power grid failure is next?
It isn’t like it’s never happened, but it may only be a matter of time before it occurs on a massive scale.
In December of 2015, 230,000 people in Western Ukraine lost power after 30 substations were mysteriously shut off. Contrary to what most people assumed at the time, this wasn’t an innocuous power outage. The authorities would later admit that the loss of power was caused by a cyber attack, which marked the first time that malware was successfully used to attack a power grid. A similar, albeit more sophisticated cyber attack, occurred one year later just outside of Kiev. Given the current tensions between Russia and Ukraine, it’s widely believed that the Russian government was responsible for these incidents.
However, there’s more to this story than meets the eye. A computer security company has been investigating these attacks, and has discovered the malware that was used to take down the grid. They’ve found that it’s far more dangerous and easier to use than anyone realized before. –Ready Nutrition
It may not necessarily be malicious malware that takes down the grid either. Even solar flares can cause some incredibly intense issues.
Most policy makers have not taken the threat of an earth-directed solar flare seriously, even though a senior member of the Congressional Homeland Security Committee recently warned that there is a 100% Chance of a Severe Geo-Magnetic Event Capable of Crippling Our Electric Grid.
If such an event were to happen Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, who has advised people to develop individual preparedness plans based on the threat of massive solar flares or electro-magnetic pulse detonations, says that it would take upwards of 18 months to bring the grid back online because of a decaying national infrastructure. –SHTFPlan
With the crash of the airport system affecting people worldwide, imagine how much chaos would ensue should the power grid go down over most of earth. Preparing for the worst case power grid failure may give you that small chance you need to make it through.
Oh boy, here we go again. . .
Here we go again, Happy as can be, All good chums and jolly good company!
Maybe they should stop using Windows98 operating on 80386 SXs as the system wide operating system, d’ya think?
Exactly Test,
Most of the ATM machines in the US continue to use Windows XP.
I read a story like this, full well knowing they were hacked and at the same time see articles about going to an all electronic currency? Frightening, the hubris.
In PR you aren’t buying food or water right now without cash, and the ATM machines in most cases are broken or not connected to the network or electricity.
Actually Windows 98XP was one of the best operating system ever produced. I got 10+years out of a laptop using Win98XP.
THE GRID CRASHED in FL during Hurricane Irma. 7.3 Lost power. In my area they had no grid power for 6 days. Well pumps didnt work or refrigerators. I never lost power. In fact my Solar System worked Flawless. I always had power. I have now been 31 months all Off Grid here at my BOL for electric. No Fascist Commie Power Co Bills and all the associated taxes here. Do the Math. Stop feeding the beast. Better get you solar fast. Get it set up and working. Trump may slap some Tarriffs on foreign solar panels and equip. All to save the Solar Monopoly and inferior products.
Blah Blah Blah. Me Me Me. I’m such a hotshot. Good for you. Too bad you are still paying the “Fascist Commie Internet Company” so you can still post chest puffing comments here….
Hahaaaaa…
Fact is the damn government is full of fucking idiots
Off topic/ “Sunset of the Dollar” podcast on You Tube/ Jim Willie breaks it down.
Also on Sgt. Report & Silver Doctors. The average, uninformed American out there should
listen to it over and over until it sinks in. The reserve currency of the world is dying, as we
here already know. More and more countries are moving away from it. As we here already
know, there will be consequences that will affect everyone.
I’ll bet it was hackers. They can supposedly take down the grid down as well. Don’t need an EMP.
Was a Class 3 solar disruption the last few days, with a Class 6 incoming.
Expect 7+ EQ’s, im gonna say around the Alutians, i feel Japan will have another mid 6 EQ.
Only a matter of time before the world goes dark.
AT,
You are right there are unexpected storms on the sun in the last few days and weeks. It could be the source. My money is on hackers though.
In the days I ran a UNIX network, I had a conversation with a high level executive about random failures of equipment and data. The number one culprit is dirty power, line spikes. The next is random bits in computers being lost. The latter thought to be caused by particles or gamma rays from space. There was a quantifiable number from an IBM study that says one in so many million bits of data will be changed by unknown forces. To protect against this I used 14 rotated daily backup tapes (two weeks worth) with one tape from the group being archived, and replaced every 60 days. But – I digress.
If you look at the history of aurora borealis you will find after Rome was destroyed there was nearly a thousand years of aurora quiet. However, around the time of Christs birth, aurora was seen as far south as Jerusalem?
Through out history Aurora has appeared randomly. There are periods of quiet and extreme. The Carrington event never went much further south than NY city. History however records events visible much further south including the south of France, Greece, Italia, even Jerusalem.
This known history leads me to believe we ain’t seen nothing yet.
If the world says go to an electronic currency, I say buy silver.
One can hope!
Since the airline systems are connected worldwide, and national power grids mostly aren’t, I’d say: No.
Absent a war, hackers aren’t going to be crashing the power grids, regardless of the alleged Ukraine hack. Most of the reports on recent alleged hacks of US power stations have been greatly exaggerated. The Washington Post published one story without even checking the power utility involved and was forced to retract it.
Ha, perhaps overload and NSA spying?
As an freelance IT, I swear…. if I have to hear that perky oh-so helpful Windows 10 female voice one more time during setup pushing Cortana I’m going to shoot the damned machine. Most of the so-called backdoors are built-in to the OS’s as part and parcel to Microsoft and its corporate partners doing their level best to siphon as many dollars away from the users as possible. It is THEIR opening of your systems that are exploited. Any industrial or commercial enterprise that is built around Windows… anything… is open to hackers due to those same exploitable avenues. And folks, don’t thing Apple/Mac are one bit better. Only a pure Linux-based system has a prayer of real defense against the real-world threats. And that …… is transient at best.
Anybody notice the level 3 geomagnetic storm?
I guess reporting on that might threaten the global warming scam.
Can the power grid be next? YES. Only a matter of time.
Back in the day a person had to show up at a bank teller to try and steal money. Now you have millions of hacking attempts all day all over with all the banks.
Human civilization has opened itself up to collapse. Through malicious malcontents all over. Butt-heads who don’t realize or care that they are going to bring down their own living situation.
Having seen the IT of many companies, utilities, and government agencies and can believe that such a screw up can happen. The Architecture should not have allowed such as failure. Now that the weakness is public, I can see that infrastructure being attacked. It is just a matter of time before transportation and electric grid are brought down for some period of time. Question is: how long before this occurs and how long will they be down for?