Outage Outrage

Rewired Carol Wilson, Editor-at-large 8/22/2013

Is there something in the August air?

In the last seven days, outages have impacted Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), and Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN). Today, Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL)'s iCloud and the Nasdaq data feed have been affected. (See: If Web Giants Sneeze, Do We All Catch Cold?.)

The Nasdaq crash is probably causing the most concern, since it has halted trading on that exchange. However, Apple's iCloud woes affected a few million people, as well.

Are we in the midst of an extraordinary display of our future vulnerability, or is this merely the new normal? A year from now, will outages of this sort even be considered newsworthy?

— Carol Wilson, Editor-at-Large, Light Reading

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sam masud 8/26/2013 | 1:14:50 PM

Re: End of Daze Mr. Beck is a true sage (i think not).

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DanJones 8/23/2013 | 1:28:07 PM

Re: DDOS Attacks On the mobile side, I've been told that the massive amount of Diameter calls on the system is what typically takes down 4G networks, not LTE congestion or anything that simple.

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Carol Wilson 8/23/2013 | 12:05:51 PM

Re: DDOS Attacks I think you've hit on something here. People put systems into place and assume they are going to function as expected.

I would assume we will be seeing a new generation of security and monitoring controls grow out of this - or wider deployment of what already exists. I realize no one wants to build in massive human capital as part of that equation but the cost of not responding quickly to outages, in time to prevent major impact, may outweigh the need for constant cost control.

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Carol Wilson 8/23/2013 | 12:00:27 PM

Re: connection Steve, I don't think so - the old stuff is actually pretty reliable.

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pzernik 8/23/2013 | 11:31:57 AM

DDOS Attacks As more and more companies cut back on the number of people in the control tower (IS) we'll see more and more crashes. At the same time we meed more redundancy and security controls especially where health and welfare is potentially impacted. This trend is getting scary.

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Steve Saunders 8/23/2013 | 9:51:13 AM

connection Carol, is there a connection between any of the outages and the teend cited in this blog by Jim?

http://www.lightreading.com/author.asp?section_id=222&doc_id=705324&

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pdonegan67 8/23/2013 | 5:12:53 AM

Hallmarks of a DDoS Attack ? A DDoS attack looks like a prime suspect in the case of the Nasdaq outage but not much real information coming out at this stage. At least the Googles and Amazons and Nasdaqs are willing to continue piling a tonne of money into network reslience and security. What I see in too many sizable Tier 2 and Tier 3 telecom operators is management cutting budgets, cutting corners and cutting operational staffing levels or outsourcing with greatly varying degress of success.

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Phil_Britt 8/22/2013 | 11:07:20 PM

Outage Outrage The more complex the system, the more things that can go wrong. Though there was much speculation as to what caused the Nasdaq outage, it's likely something simple, like a wrong key being hit on a "foolproof" system.

Redundant systems are more crucial then ever, but so-called black swan events aren't as uncommon as they used to be -- think Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy and a construction worker with a backhoe cutting a power cable.

The recent outages suffered at Nasqaq and by various communications providers weren't power related this time, but adding new code, integrating new hardware or making other changes can easily result in unintended consequences. So outages are likely to be more common, but not so common that they are not newsworthy. Power outages have been occuring since Edison invented the light bulb, but large power outtages are still of interest to those affected.

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@jopocop 8/22/2013 | 5:20:15 PM

Outage, Outrage Reminds me as a kid watching years ago Broadcast TV and all of a sudden the screen went into the out of service mode. We didn't know if the outage was short or for the rest of the day or night. The Blackberry incident a couple of years ago was a scary one for like 3 days, not only for the users, but also it was apart of of the downfall of RIM. Today's Nasdaq outage was totally unacceptable and shows in effect what a cyber attack can do for example. Heck, maybe this was a cyber attack and they won't tell us. When it comes to the stock trading markets, people are very, very nervous when they are boxed out of making trades, thereby creating reasons not to buy long and to sell out from fear. Today at least, the market just needed to have a modest upside day, after being beaten up lately. Otherwise, this could have had a worse outcome on the markets than what turned out to be the case.

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mendyk 8/22/2013 | 3:24:48 PM

End of Daze Glenn Beck has it right. Buy gold. Build an underground bunker and stuff it with survival rations (and gold). Make sure your bear arms are cleaned and well-oiled and loaded for bear. Expect the worst. You won't be disappointed.

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