UK massive telecommunications outage

originally posted by: Maxatoria
While theres plenty of fall back when the inter connects between ISP's fall over it can overload the remaining links (just like a car crash leads to tailbacks and diversions).

Biggest problem will be either the DNS servers being unavailable and thus lots of stuff will just fall flat on its arse or when it does come back the rerouting of traffic can take time and some strange things can occur while it settles down.

The usual suspect for these sort of things is some idiot with a JCB going mad outside a data centre and pulling up loads of cables and going 'oops'.

In my network architects course, our professor had a "flash card" live drill he would give us to test our ability to rapidly debug network outages. He would pose a network outtage symptom, and we would select which answer card was likely the culprit. One of the answers on the cards we were given was written "Man with Backhoe". We all laughed when we saw that in our deck, and joked about it openly. But one of the funniest was the very next week, he brought in a news story of a man with a backhoe on Wall Street in NY who dug up a main fiber cable to the financial district.

It resulted in an hours long outtage to the banking system, and cost literally tens of millions of dollars lost due to the banks inability to do business. His response was,

"Your fancy and high tech network will always be at the mercy of some person who may never have graduated high school running a piece of heavy equipment with no understanding of what he/she is digging into, remember that."

It drove home the fragility of all networks, and why physical redundancy and having an updated restoration plan in place was critical.

a reply to: Krakatoa

"Your fancy and high tech network will always be at the mercy of some person who may never have graduated high school running a piece of heavy equipment with no understanding of what he/she is digging into, remember that."

Or someone who never graduated highschool operating a laptop knowing exactly what they're doing

originally posted by: CriticalStinker
a reply to: Krakatoa

"Your fancy and high tech network will always be at the mercy of some person who may never have graduated high school running a piece of heavy equipment with no understanding of what he/she is digging into, remember that."

Or someone who never graduated highschool operating a laptop knowing exactly what they're doing

Yes, now that is also true. Part of my current job is to prevent that from happening. But I find uneducated and cheaper "coders" are growing at an ever increasing pace. Making that a perpetual struggle to keep from happening.

a reply to: Krakatoa

There were a bunch of threads a few years back that seemed indicitive of infrastructure breaches. Some may have eventually been exposed of actual intrusions.

The emergency alert system in Utica New York saying nationwide hazmat emergency then reading parts of green eggs and ham "would you could you on a train" a day before the NJ amtrac crash. Here's the thread from 2016, one of my favorite ATS mysteries.

Tornado sirens in Colorado going off while putting off an unprogrammed pitch (several of them at the same time).

Tornado sirens going off in the middle of the night at Dallas (I believe this one was said to be a hack).

I think they were all test runs.

originally posted by: CriticalStinker
a reply to: Krakatoa

There were a bunch of threads a few years back that seemed indicitive of infrastructure breaches. Some may have eventually been exposed of actual intrusions.

The emergency alert system in Utica New York saying nationwide hazmat emergency then reading parts of green eggs and ham "would you could you on a train" in close proximity to the NJ amtrac crash.

Tornado sirens in Colorado going off while putting off an unprogramed pitch (several of them at the same time).

Tornado sirens going off in the middle of the night at Dallas (I believe this one was said to be a hack).

I think they were all test runs.

No comment.... Don't want to piss off the DIA here.

a reply to: TheGreatWork

Uttering that retarded phrase should come with an automatic lifetime ban.

originally posted by: Allaroundyou
a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin

good luck

Still working fine here....

a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin
Anything to do with Hauwei?

a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin

Was reported down at the same time last Tuesday apparently - www.theregister.co.uk...

My guess is it's due to with Project Lightning.

a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin
I suspect this is a coincidence, but I got a phone call yesterday. A recorded voice began saying "... technical department; your internet connection will be terminated within twenty-four hours", and it was just telling me that this was because of links which had been found, when I put the phone down. So I never did discover what they wanted me to do about it, and my Virgin connection has not gone down.

a reply to: DISRAELI

That Im afraid is a scam call - we had about 4 or 5 of those the other day - oh and we provide internet services LOL (my company I mean)

a reply to: Silk
I guessed that quickly enough to put the phone down. It's the first I've received, though. I take it they were going to ask me to log on and click on something, in order to fix the problem.

originally posted by: TheGreatWork
And so it begins..Hope it isn't anything stupid.

And so what begins?

I wonder if this might be connected to the scandal with Huawei?

They're a major manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, and guess what? It all spies on you for the Chinese government. The US recently banned the use of Huawei equipment, and said the UK will lose access to US intelligence if they don't do likewise.

a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin

Mine was a bit dodgy yesterday. All good today though.

a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin

Not sure if related but me and a colleague nipped into Asda at around 1.30 pm today to get some lunch.
All the tills went down for 20 minutes .

a reply to: DISRAELI

My household received that call too.

originally posted by: OtherSideOfTheCoin
So posting this on my phone as it seems to be working for now.

Virgin media has gone down, seems like the entire system has been switched off and has been for the last hour. No calls, internet or TV.

There are also reports that the EE network is having problems.

I would post links but am on my phone....

I use virgin media at home for work, and my phone is on the EE network. I had zero outages yesterday - are you sure it wasn't a localised issue?

Good. Shut it all down. Might do people some good.

There is a lot going on in the United Kingdom today. Breaking news that Theresa May is about to resign?

www.standard.co.uk...