Northeast blackout 2003 software issues of a computer

The 2003 northeast blackoutfive years later scientific american. On august 14, 2003, more than 50 million people across eight u. The 10 most infamous computer glitches ever 40tech. This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said new york city was spared in the 2003 blackout.

However, a software bug also stalled firstenergys control room for more than an hour, preventing system operators from detecting audio and visual alerts. For more than five years, nerc has sought and failed to get. As a matter of fact, programming bugs can irritate, however, the defective programming can likewise be costly, humiliating, ruinous and savage. Ultimately, however, the issues raised by the blackout go far beyond that, which may be why doe took charge of the inquriy on 20 august. Ten years later, we are still grappling with concerns over the vulnerability of the power grid. The northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage that occurred throughout parts of the northeastern and midwestern united states and the canadian province of ontario on thursday, august 14, 2003, just before 4. Many others did not get their power back until two days later. Software failure cited in august blackout investigation computerworld. Generic term for objects, people who pose potential danger to assets via attacks threat agent. The 2003 northeast blackoutfive years later scientific. Ten years ago today, large portions of the midwest and northeast united states and into canada went dark. What will be key challenges for the resilience of the electricity subsector in the future. The cascading event, which started shortly after 4.

A task force looking into the cause of the massive aug. In other areas, it took nearly a week or two for power to be restored. However, a nerc report dated june 20, 2003, shows that the slammer worm had a significant impact on some utilities. Weakness or fault that can lead to an exposure threat. The report makes clear that this blackout could have been prevented and that immediate actions must be taken in both the united states and canada to ensure that our electric system is more reliable.

Using similar arguments for the remaining period of the blackout, we assume more than,000 mw of customer load was lost for another 14 hours after which 6,600 mw was the shortfall for another 10 hours. An analysis of the causes and consequences of the northeast blackout of 2003. Final report on the august 14, 2003 blackout in the united. The northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage throughout parts of the northeastern and midwestern united states, and the canadian province of ontario on august 14, 2003, beginning just after 4. As the august 14th blackout began, a flaw buried in widelydeployed. Improvising in the blackout, the college student shmuel aziza powers his laptop computer off of a. The northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage throughout parts of the northeastern and midwestern united states, and the canadian province of ontario on august 1428, 2003, beginning just after 4. Impact of northeast blackout continues to emerge by jeremy johnson and alex lefebvre 20 august 2003 the blackout that began last thursday, cutting. In some respects, kingdon capital management lucked out with the northeast blackout of august 2003. Northeast blackout of 2003 or north america blackout of 2003. The northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage that occurred throughout parts of the northeastern and midwestern united states and the canadian province of ontario on thursday, august 14, 2003, just after 4. My computer has begun to blackout in the middle of me using it.

This led to a server failure, followed by the failure of a backup server. The great northeast blackout of 2003 caused the failure of more than 508 generating units at 265 separate power plants. By thinkreliability staff on august 14, 2003, over 50 million people in the u. The relevant root cause information is included below. The outage occurred after the market had closed and, for kingdon at least, only lasted about 12. Investigators found several factorsalarm system issues, software bugs, and an overloaded ohioarea stationwere. The northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage throughout parts of the northeastern and midwestern united states and the canadian province of ontario on thursday, august 14, 2003, just after 4. Firstenergy says its problems were some of many issues. Blackout hits northeast united states a major outage knocked out power across the eastern united states and parts of canada on august 14, 2003. The computer systems we use on our desktops are not reliable enough for critical applications. Its been 15 years since the 2003 blackout that left metro detroit in the dark. In more remote areas it took nearly a week to restore power.

Edt most places restored power by midnight, as early as 6 p. Software bug contributed to blackout securityfocus. Created by laura cronin, conor mccarter, and stephanie tilden. Threats and attacks computer science and engineering. Pataki reluctantly recalled one of the two major blackouts of the last 40 years in the northeast the 1965 power failure, which left an 80,000squaremile stretch of the united states and. Northeast blackout of 2003first energy outage reports. The blackout that exposed the flaws in the grid the new. This article claims that the chinese peoples liberation army was behind, among other things, the august 2003 blackout computer hackers in china, including those working on behalf of the chinese government and military, have penetrated deeply into the information systems of u. Software bug contributed to blackout kevin poulsen, securityfocus 20040211. August 14, 2003 blackout investigation phase ii next steps.

Moving forward on lessons learned from the blackout of 2003. The tripping of the sammisstar 345kv transmission line prompted the outcome propagating across borders and turning into a cascading blackout which affected eight states and two provinces in canada. One of them was buried in a massive piece of software compiled from four million lines of c code and running on an energy management computer in ohio. Even worse, perhaps, was that they did not alert their neighboring grids of the problems they were facing. The northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage that occurred throughout parts of the northeastern and midwestern united states and ontario, canada on thursday, august 14, 2003, just before 4. The department of energy and natural resources canada jointly commissioned a task force that. A software bug known as a race condition existed in general electric. Specific object, person who poses such a danger by carrying out an attack ddos attacks are a threat if a hacker carries out a ddos attack, hes a threat agent.

The report blamed the thenunexplained computer failure for. In the great northeast blackout of 1965, the largest in u. Northeast blackout of 1965 or north america blackout of 1965. On august 14 th, 2003, a blackout affected northeast america and canada in which millions of people were affected.

Software failure cited in august blackout investigation. A power outage also called a power cut, a power out, a power blackout, power failure or a blackout is the loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user there are many causes of power failures in an electricity network. For some customers, power was not restored for nearly four days. In one case, a server on a control center lan running microsofts sql server. A previouslyunknown software flaw in a widelydeployed general electric energy management system contributed to the devastating scope of the august 14th northeastern u. Nerc august 14, 2003 blackout technical presentation.

The blackout 2003 af termath when an overheating electrical tran smission line sagged into a tree just outside cleveland at 3. How and why the blackout began in ohio summary this chapter explains the major eventselectrical, computer, and humanthat occurred as the blackout evolved on august 14, 2003, and identifies the. New york subways resumed limited services around 8 p. Causes of the august 14th blackout in the united states and canada, u. Taking after are 6 famous software disasters in as beneath. The northeast blackout of 2003 and last years superstorm sandy were. In addition, issues related to the misoperation of the italian automatic procedure to prevent the blackout are discussed. Technical analysis of the august 14, 2003, blackout nerc. A case study of the 2003 north american power outage key questions what were the main vulnerabilities and threats related to the electricity subsector of the energy sector at the time of the blackout. A number of factors and failings came together to make the august 14th northeastern blackout the worst outage in north american history. The story, citing computer security professionals, who in turn \. Remembering the 2003 northeast blackout photos wsj. On august 14, 2003, a series of faults caused by tree branches touching power lines in ohio, which were then complicated by human error, software issues, and equipment failures, led to the most widespread blackout in north american history.

Most did not get their power back until two days later. Finally, on the third day of this blackout, 2,000 mw was the loss for 20 hours and. We recognize that our computer system experienced problems that day, said alexander. Examples of these causes include faults at power stations, damage to electric transmission lines, substations or other parts of the distribution system, a short. In other areas it took nearly a week or two for power to be restored.