Computer glitches that crippled trading on Wall Street, grounded United Airlines flights and temporarily blocked The Wall Street Journal‘s website caused major jitters on Wednesday that the snags were part of a coordinated cyber attack, despite White House and industry assurances that the failures were unrelated.
At United, the problem struck about 8: 30 a.m. Eastern time, with flights resuming after about an hour. A source with direct knowledge of the airline’s situation told CNN its employees have investigated the computer glitch and determined the company wasn’t attacked.
“This was not the work of hackers at all,” the source said. “There was no hacking whatsoever, and there is no evidence of any connection to what is happening at the NYSE.”
The stock exchange, where trading stopped about 11:30 a.m. and reopened after a four-hour shutdown, also assured the public that hackers weren’t behind the problems.
“The issue we are experiencing is an internal technical issue and is not the result of a cyber breach,” NYSE tweeted. “We chose to suspend trading on NYSE to avoid problems arising from our technical issue.”
The Wall Street Journal, which lost its home page minutes after the stock exchange problem started, was back up by Wednesday afternoon, with a bare-bones website and basic formatting. The company didn’t say what caused the problem, however some speculated that the NYSE shutdown attracted a flood of visitors to WSJ.com, overloading the site’s servers.
The Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the glitches “were not the result of any nefarious actor,” and White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that President Obama had been briefed by the DHS.
Coincidentally on Wednesday, the University of Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies and Lloyd’s of London released a report detailing that a cyber attack that took out part of the U.S. power grid would cost America trillions of dollars.
Despite the DHS statement and tweets from the NYSE itself declaring the malfunctions were not the result of a cyber attack, many in the Twitterverse remain skeptical, particularly because the hacktivist group Anonymous sent out a tweet Tuesday that said, “ Wonder if tomorrow is going to be bad for Wall Street…. we can only hope.”
(1 of 3) The issue we are experiencing is an internal technical issue and is not the result of a cyber breach.
— NYSE (@NYSE) July 8, 2015
(2 of 3) We chose to suspend trading on NYSE to avoid problems arising from our technical issue.
— NYSE (@NYSE) July 8, 2015
(3 of 3) NYSE-listed securities continue to trade unaffected on other market centers.
— NYSE (@NYSE) July 8, 2015
Wonder if tomorrow is going to be bad for Wall Street…. we can only hope.
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) July 8, 2015
Sorry but are we REALLY supposed to believe the @united shutdown and #NYSEdown isn’t a cyber attack/hack? How stupid do they think we are?
— Brandy (@GeorgiaGirl9) July 8, 2015
NYSE, UA, WSJ simultaneous computer “glitches”? How stupid does DHS think we are? #cyberattack @TeamCavuto @instapundit @ericbolling
— dark_poplar (@dark_poplar) July 8, 2015
News of the day: NYSE shut down. United Airlines grounded. WSJ down and they say it’s not a cyber attack. do we look stupid?
— Richard Brandt (@richbrandt) July 8, 2015
I like these coincidences … “we are not under a cyber attack” They must think people are that stupid…. or else they are.
— Doug Glatt (@d_glatt) July 8, 2015
Go look at what #Anonymous tweeted yesterday and tell me that the NYSE outage was not a cyber attack.
— Bike Move (@mbove97) July 8, 2015
CEO: NYSE SHUTDOWN “PROBABLY” A CYBERATTACK + Anonymous CALLED it last night. https://t.co/RzxigLJVuB
— FTSN (@fightingtyranny) July 8, 2015
Can the media just stop with this “its not a cyber attack” and recognize what anonymous did now?
— Nemoy Rau (@NRaush) July 8, 2015
The more the NYSE plead that they haven’t fallen victim to a cyber attack, makes it sound all the more likely that Anonymous did hack them
— James Higgins (@James_T_Higgins) July 8, 2015
If you don’t think these computer glitches are related & not some sort of cyber attack, then you are a big ole idiot.
— trish (@metalmeek) July 8, 2015
We were under a cyber attack and the authorities are lying about it. NYSE was predicted and United grounding flights for”automation” issues
— Christina Natch (@ChristinaNatch) July 8, 2015
YES it was a Cyber attack Were in a new kind of war #Cyberwars This will go on for years Obama administration is lying again #truth @foxnews
— Lisa Aarstaad (@101PCHCruzGirl) July 8, 2015
Wait — #NYSE, #WSJ, and United Airlines all have system crashes at once and it’s NOT a cyber attack…? Someone is lying to us (again)…
— Shaun B. McGarry (@ShaunBMcGarry) July 8, 2015
The @NYSE is lying to you. This IS a cyber attack. http://t.co/w2peIA3Y8T http://t.co/uFLail99eb #NYSE @NorseCorp pic.twitter.com/9iEZ9SaCW3
— Jonathan Langdale (@jlangdale) July 8, 2015
When the powers that be state that what has happened today isn’t a cyber attack they are lying!
— Twisted Piston (@Yannis69) July 8, 2015
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