Northeast blackout 2003 software issues of a computer

Nerc august 14, 2003 blackout technical presentation. A task force looking into the cause of the massive aug. 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 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. However, a software bug also stalled firstenergys control room for more than an hour, preventing system operators from detecting audio and visual alerts. In other areas, it took nearly a week or two for power to be restored. Examples of these causes include faults at power stations, damage to electric transmission lines, substations or other parts of the distribution system, a short. Causes of the august 14th blackout in the united states and canada, u. Blaster worm linked to severity of blackout computerworld. The northeast blackout of 2003 and last years superstorm sandy were. On august 14, 2003, more than 50 million people across eight u. What will be key challenges for the resilience of the electricity subsector in the future.

As the august 14th blackout began, a flaw buried in widelydeployed. This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said new york city was spared in the 2003 blackout. In addition, issues related to the misoperation of the italian automatic procedure to prevent the blackout are discussed. 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.

The outage occurred after the market had closed and, for kingdon at least, only lasted about 12. Weakness or fault that can lead to an exposure threat. Technical analysis of the august 14, 2003, blackout nerc. Improvising in the blackout, the college student shmuel aziza powers his laptop computer off of a. A software bug known as a race condition existed in general electric. 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. 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. In the great northeast blackout of 1965, the largest in u. Another pdf file to the final analysis of the 2003 power blackour in the ne united states. 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.

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. 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. Chinese hackers may have been responsible for the recent power outage in florida, and the widespread blackout that struck the northeastern u. Even worse, perhaps, was that they did not alert their neighboring grids of the problems they were facing. The blackout 2003 af termath when an overheating electrical tran smission line sagged into a tree just outside cleveland at 3. Finally, on the third day of this blackout, 2,000 mw was the loss for 20 hours and. 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. The department of energy and natural resources canada jointly commissioned a task force that. Geckil, economist aeg working paper 20032 introduction on thursday, august 14, 2003, an electrical disruption caused a loss of electrical service to consumers and industry acro ss the northeast. Normally, the problem would have tripped an alarm in the control room of firstenergy corporation, an ohiobased utility company, but the.

For some customers, power was not restored for nearly four days. Northeast blackout of 1965 or north america blackout of 1965. Most did not get their power back until two days later. 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. The blackout that exposed the flaws in the grid the new. By thinkreliability staff on august 14, 2003, over 50 million people in the u. For more than five years, nerc has sought and failed to get. On august 14 th, 2003, a blackout affected northeast america and canada in which millions of people were affected.

New york subways resumed limited services around 8 p. 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. Software bug contributed to blackout kevin poulsen, securityfocus 20040211. Investigators found several factorsalarm system issues, software bugs, and an overloaded ohioarea stationwere. Generic term for objects, people who pose potential danger to assets via attacks threat agent. As a matter of fact, programming bugs can irritate, however, the defective programming can likewise be costly, humiliating, ruinous and savage. An analysis of the causes and consequences of the northeast blackout of 2003. The cascading event, which started shortly after 4. 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. Remembering the 2003 northeast blackout photos wsj. My computer has begun to blackout in the middle of me using it. Edt most places restored power by midnight, as early as 6 p. The 2003 northeast blackoutfive years later scientific american.

Taking after are 6 famous software disasters in as beneath. However, a nerc report dated june 20, 2003, shows that the slammer worm had a significant impact on some utilities. Blackout hits northeast united states a major outage knocked out power across the eastern united states and parts of canada on august 14, 2003. Threats and attacks computer science and engineering. Ten years ago today, large portions of the midwest and northeast united states and into canada went dark. Ten years later, we are still grappling with concerns over the vulnerability of the power grid. Software bug contributed to blackout securityfocus. In one case, a server on a control center lan running microsofts sql server. The story, citing computer security professionals, who in turn \. August 14, 2003 blackout investigation phase ii next steps. In more remote areas it took nearly a week to restore power. We recognize that our computer system experienced problems that day, said alexander. 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.

Moving forward on lessons learned from the blackout of 2003. 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. Its been 15 years since the 2003 blackout that left metro detroit in the dark. The relevant root cause information is included below. 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. Final report on the august 14, 2003 blackout in the united. The 10 most infamous computer glitches ever 40tech. The 2003 northeast blackoutfive years later scientific. In some respects, kingdon capital management lucked out with the northeast blackout of august 2003. A number of factors and failings came together to make the august 14th northeastern blackout the worst outage in north american history. Northeast blackout of 2003first energy outage reports. Software failure cited in august blackout investigation computerworld. Software failure cited in august blackout investigation. This led to a server failure, followed by the failure of a backup server.

The report blamed the thenunexplained computer failure for. 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 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. The great northeast blackout of 2003 caused the failure of more than 508 generating units at 265 separate power plants. Many others did not get their power back until two days later. Created by laura cronin, conor mccarter, and stephanie tilden. A previouslyunknown software flaw in a widelydeployed general electric energy management system contributed to the devastating scope of the august 14th northeastern u. Northeast blackout of 2003 or north america blackout of 2003. In other areas it took nearly a week or two for power to be restored. The computer systems we use on our desktops are not reliable enough for critical applications. 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.