Global internet outage - Disruption to airlines, banks, media and other businesses worldwide - July 19, 2024

[nerosleuth]

The global internet outage is also affecting various local and state government agencies and businesses today in the Columbus, Ohio region.

How the global tech outage is affecting services in Columbus and Franklin County

 

[Grouse]

It’s disturbing to me how many businesses and government agencies have no contingency plan for system failures like this. That’s precisely why I think it’s foolish for so many businesses to put all their eggs in the AI basket. Our society is entirely too reliant on computers these days, and it scares me to think about how easily we could be crippled by right cyberattack. Especially when it comes to services like 911 and healthcare. Health and security services really should be required to have a Plan B in place for computer failures. Honestly, it’s appalling to me that they don’t already.

I completely agree with you but to be honest I think the ship has sailed on this, I think we have passed a point of no return. It's not just computers and the internet, we've come to rely totally on a lot of other infrastructure in the last century or so - radio communications, power grids, satellites etc. Another solar storm like the one in 1859 could cause untold damage.

Not going for my tin foil hat yet though, think we have to remember the massive benefits of this technology as well

 

[Dotta]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1814325260977684732

 

[Lorenathered]

I am in IT and have been dealing with this since I walked in this morning. Almost every system (500+) was at a bluescreen. No amount of rebooting fixed any of ours. We also had bitlocker on most of them which added to the headache. But just to put the recovery from this into perspective, I had to go to every system and boot them into recovery mode and delete the offending file from a DOS prompt. The reports and crowdstrike are making it sound like they handed us a life raft quickly. No they didn't. Most of the time, once a system is in a blue screen loop, there is no "pushing" a fix to it. So from what it takes to get all the systems back on line, that should give a good idea of how long it might take for everything to get back up and running. And also, give your IT people some slack today. It has been rough.

 

[Inthedetails]

I am in IT and have been dealing with this since I walked in this morning. Almost every system (500+) was at a bluescreen. No amount of rebooting fixed any of ours. We also had bitlocker on most of them which added to the headache. But just to put the recovery from this into perspective, I had to go to every system and boot them into recovery mode and delete the offending file from a DOS prompt. The reports and crowdstrike are making it sound like they handed us a life raft quickly. No they didn't. Most of the time, once a system is in a blue screen loop, there is no "pushing" a fix to it. So from what it takes to get all the systems back on line, that should give a good idea of how long it might take for everything to get back up and running. And also, give your IT people some slack today. It has been rough.

Oh, wow! I'd hand you a beer at the end of the day if I could. On behalf of everyone, thank you.

(I haven't heard "dos prompt" in ages. For most of us, that term has gone the way of "dial tone" these days.)

jmo

 

[JDG]

Just keep some cash on hand folks.

I recall a power outage where I was able to make a purchase at the grocery store because I had cash and didn’t care about my change.

Lots of positives about technology but keep the old ways available as backup.

 

[Lorenathered]

Oh, wow! I'd hand you a beer at the end of the day if I could. On behalf of everyone, thank you.

(I haven't heard "dos prompt" in ages. For most of us, that term has gone the way of "dial tone" these days.)

jmo

Thank goodness I have been in IT long enough to remember my DOS commands! If it weren't for bitlocker I could have booted them into safe mode and it would have been slightly easier to remove the file. It may be the old school PC tech in me but doing it in DOS was much faster in the long run anyway.

 

[whiterhino]

BBM.

Known as a BSOD - blue screen of death. Surprised a reboot fixed it - I thought there was more involved to recover each computer?

You can still use a computer with BSOD in "safe mode" and it can either be reset to factory mode or create a restore point. FWIW. Idk if that has anything to do with whatever happened today though?

 

[Knox]

I am in IT and have been dealing with this since I walked in this morning. Almost every system (500+) was at a bluescreen. No amount of rebooting fixed any of ours. We also had bitlocker on most of them which added to the headache. But just to put the recovery from this into perspective, I had to go to every system and boot them into recovery mode and delete the offending file from a DOS prompt. The reports and crowdstrike are making it sound like they handed us a life raft quickly. No they didn't. Most of the time, once a system is in a blue screen loop, there is no "pushing" a fix to it. So from what it takes to get all the systems back on line, that should give a good idea of how long it might take for everything to get back up and running. And also, give your IT people some slack today. It has been rough.

We are one of the big three waste companies, it took us out nationwide and Canada. We’re just now getting back online, it basically took us out at the knees. We have site operational plans for this, but it was very difficult to function in manual mode.

I feel very vulnerable right now, professionally and personally. God help us all if this type of event occurs again, but as a trageted attack with no fix in sight. Very scary thought!

 

[whiterhino]

We are one of the big three waste companies, it took us out nationwide and Canada. We’re just now getting back online, it basically took us out at the knees. We have site operational plans for this, but it was very difficult to function in manual mode.

I feel very vulnerable right now, professionally and personally. God help us all if this type of event occurs again, but as a trageted attack with no fix in sight. Very scary thought!

RBBM: This!

I saw a post recently talking about "the old world" back when we used radios and cash (not to make light of what is happening but the post was lol). Nothing was online!

 

[Knox]

RBBM: This!

I saw a post recently talking about "the old world" back when we used radios and cash (not to make light of what is happening but the post was lol). Nothing was online!

Five years ago less than 15% of our business was paid with a card. Today its 90%, no one carries cash or write checks. With no card reader, that means manually recording information, then shredding. Carbons don’t work any more because there is no raised surface (chip).