ITV News – January 18, 2018 ISSUE: can crash an Apple phone or computer with a single text message ROOT CAUSE: A “text bomb” software bug (a malicious link) IMPACT: A number of Twitter users confirmed they had suffered crashes in their Messages app… some saying that they struggled to get their systems working properly again
Author Archives: Desiree Moodie
Google promises to fix Home-induced Wi-Fi woes on January 18
VentureBeat – January 17, 2018 ISSUE: occasionally causes a Cast streaming media connection to fill a home wireless network with unneeded packets, slowing down a customer’s network ROOT CAUSE: a software bug COMPANY RESPONSE: it would start rolling out a fix tomorrow
Spectre and Meltdown processor security flaws – explained
the Guardian – January 6, 2018 ISSUE: Meltdown is “probably one of the worst CPU bugs ever found” IMPACT: could in theory steal your data ISSUE: Spectre… is harder for hackers to take advantage of but is also more difficult to fix and is expected to be a bigger problem in the long term IMPACT: potentially […]
Verifone hit by global outage on card machines
the Guardian – January 16, 2018 ISSUE: Shops, football stadiums and taxis unable to take payments from frustrated customers IMPACT: “Seeing as I have to take card payments by law as a London cabbie, your system failure means I can’t work…” IMPACT: supermarkets such as Waitrose IMPACT: Reading Football Club… could not take any card payments […]
London bus safety announcements: TfL to fix ‘technical glitch’ behind wrongly-timed ‘please hold on’ warnings
Evening Standard – January 15, 2018 ISSUE: repeatedly subjected bus passengers to wrongly-timed safety announcements IMPACT: “please hold on, the bus is about to move”… once the bus has already started moving IMPACT: irked travellers have dubbed them “insanely annoying” and “condescending nonsense” ROOT CAUSE: the announcements are based on an average time that a bus […]
Sickness benefit recipients receive unexpected payment due to computer glitch
Derry Journal – January 8, 2018 ISSUE: some Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) customers will receive weekly payments instead of their normal fortnightly payments IMPACT: customers should take account of this split in payments while planning their financial needs and budget accordingly ROOT CAUSE: a technical issue in the benefits computer system COMPANY RESPONSE: DfC apologised […]
Southcentral Kentucky clerk’s office deals with computer glitch
Wayne County Outlook – January 8, 2018 ISSUE: A new computer system used to record motor vehicle licensing, deeds, mortgages, liens and other daily transactions… created some intense challenges ROOT CAUSE: due to the change of the computer system and deputy clerks’ being unfamiliar with the changes ROOT CAUSE: (another viewpoint) the glitch originated from a […]
E-pay glitch a bad omen
Bangkok Post – January 3, 2018 ISSUE: country’s national e-payment system, PromptPay, failed to handle… the calendar changing to 2018 IMPACT: disrupted about 20,000 financial transactions for eight hours ROOT CAUSE: a result of an error made by the foreign software developers, which mistakenly set the wrong date and time for the Thai calendar
Amazon: Intel Meltdown patch will slow down your AWS EC2 server
The Register – January 10, 2018 ROOT CAUSE: the deployment of a security patch to counter the Intel processor design flaw dubbed Meltdown IMPACT: Amazon AWS customers have complained of noticeable slowdowns on their cloud server instances
Hawaii missile false alarm due to badly designed user interface, reports say
the Guardian – January 16, 2018 IMPACT: A false alarm warning Hawaiians of an incoming ballistic missile on Saturday ROOT CAUSE: badly designed user interface ROOT CAUSE: employer pressed button labelled ‘missile alert’, instead of the one next to it marked ‘test missile alert’ COMPANY RESPONSE: added a “cancellation button”… HEMA has also added a requirement for […]