Ear Hustle

NYSE, United Airlines And Wall Street Journal Comes To A Complete Halt, Cyber Attack Ruled Out

New York Stock Exchange

Photo Credit: Getty Images

The New York Stock Exchange, United Airlines and the Wall Street Journal have all fallen victim to a series of massive technical glitches.

NYSE has currently halted all trading, for ‘technical reasons’ – but says the problem is an internal one and not the result of a cyberattack.

Tens of thousands of United Airlines passengers were stranded at U.S. airports on Wednesday morning after all of the carrier’s flights were grounded nationwide due to a computer system glitch.

The Wall Street Journal was also left unable to publish after its systems came under attack and has been forced to switch to an alternative site design.

The Department of Homeland security told CNN there were: ‘no signs of malicious activity at this time’

The NYSC halt started at 11:32am and was triggered by ‘technical issues,’ the NYSE said in a statement.

‘We’re currently experiencing a technical issue we’re working to resolve as quickly as possible,’ the statement reads, adding that ‘additional information will follow as soon as possible.’

‘We’re doing our utmost to produce a swift resolution & will be providing further updates as soon as we can.e as quickly as possible,’ it later tweeted.

Soon after it claimed ‘The issue we are experiencing is an internal technical issue and is not the result of a cyber breach.

‘We chose to suspend trading on NYSE to avoid problems arising from our technical issue.’

‘NYSE-listed securities continue to trade unaffected on other market centers.’

Mark Otto of J. Streicher & Co in New York told Reuters from the NYSE floor.

‘It’s under control. We’re just waiting for word. There’s no sign of panic at all,’

‘We’re waiting to hear word on if there’s going to be a reopening, and when it is or any more details.’

MSNBC claims the FBI is investigating the incidents.

The Department of Homeland Security has also issued a statement about the shutdown, saying there is currently ‘no sign of malicious activity’.

With nothing to buy or sell, traders on the usually frantic stock floor were seen sitting and standing around staring at the blank trading terminals where they usually do business.

The halt comes on the same day that United Airlines flights around the country were grounded due to a nationwide technical issue on their own network.

The Wall Street Journal newspaper’s website homepage has also broken down, and only displays an error message.

Traders on the floor say they were handed out a piece of paper this morning before trading, with a list of ‘possibly problematic’ stocks, according to CNN.

Some of those stocks include Korea Electric Power and American companies like Kate Spade and Nordstrom.

However, it’s unclear if that list has anything to do with the ongoing trading shutdown.

united airlines

Photo Credit: Pablo Murphy

Elsewhere, tens of thousands of United Airlines passengers were stranded at U.S. airports on Wednesday morning after all of the carrier’s flights were grounded nationwide due to a computer system glitch.

At around 8am EST, United requested that all of its planes be prevented from taking off after it suffered from a ‘network connectivity issue’, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Although the airline did not explain the nature of the issue, passengers said its reservation system was ‘down across the board’ – meaning those without hard boarding passes could not check in.

At some airports, United staff were pictured writing out boarding passes for fliers by hand. Shortly before 10am – two hours after the nationwide ground stop began – United resumed its service.

In a statement before the stop was lifted, United spokesman Luke Punzenberger told Bloomberg that the company had experienced a ‘network connectivity issue’ and was ‘working to resolve this’.

‘[We] apologize to our customers for any inconvenience,’ he added.

The computer error caused delays for around 3,500 flights at major U.S. airports before it was resolved, NBC reports. On its website, the FAA says the incident was due to ‘automation issues’.

The glitch does not appear to have affected airborne flights.

Although a FAA advisory, seen by ABC, states that the ground stop began just before 8am EST, it was not reported until 9am – and United did not confirm the incident on Twitter until about 9.40am.

At 9.20am, United’s feeder airlines – such as United Express – were released from the ground stop. However, United flights remained grounded until just before 9:47 a.m, according to CNN Money.

The widespread delays that occurred as a result of the computer glitch could have a snowball effect on flights traveling to hundreds of domestic and international destinations, aviation experts say.

Less that two hours after the error was resolved, the New York Stock Exchange halted all trading, for reasons not yet announced. CNBC reports that the halt was triggered by ‘technical issues’.

On Wednesday morning, passengers were taking to the airline forum flyertalk.com to discuss the United ground stop, with one saying the pilot told them ‘three of four’ computer systems were down.

Another said their plane had headed to the runway to depart, before turning back to the gate.

And a passenger at Port Columbus Airport in Ohio said the gate agent had told them that United’s reservation system, SHARES, was ‘down across the board’, resulting in the nationwide incident.

‘Every flight is delayed at the moment. Rough start to the day,’ the user added.

Indeed, at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, United passengers without a hard copy of their boarding pass were not being allowed to check in for their flights, NBC reports.

Source: Daily Mail

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