Skip to main content

Sneak attack from feline friend wipes US government server with cat-astrophic impact — human technician cat-egorically denies involvement

Working from home has its perils, but spare a thought for a technician at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri, whose cat allegedly deleted an entire server cluster – leading to a four-hour outage last month.

The outage apparently happened while the technician was reviewing how a server cluster was configured, according to the Register.

What they assumed was their feline friend turned foe, leaping onto the keyboard – unprompted – and accidentally wiping out the server, according to the agency’s CIO, Kurt DelBene, telling participants in a video conferencing call.

Shroedinger’s cat-astrophe

“This is why I have a dog,” DelBene, who is also assistant secretary for information and technology, was reported as saying.

There hasn’t yet been any official confirmation that a cat, indeed, had caused the outage – but the government did confirm an outage had happened.

"On September 13, 2023 the Kansas City VAMC [Veterans Affairs Medical Center] experienced an issue with image transfer within Vista due to an inadvertent deletion of server profiles,” the agency said, according to the publication. 

“The issue was quickly identified and the system restored within four hours. There have been no further issues or direct impacts to veterans from this incident."

When the Register pushed back, asking the Department of Veteran Affairs’ press secretary to confirm whether or not the cat was involved, they declined to comment. 

While this is certainly a bizarre outage, the technician in question will, hopefully, get some respite from knowing he’s not alone. 

This isn’t the first cat-related IT incident, after all, and is simply the latest in a string of bizarre outages recorded over the years. Level 3 Communications, for example, once attributed 17% of its fiber cuts to squirrels.   

More from TechRadar Pro



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Garmin's new radar-equipped tail light will keep you safe on your e-bike

Garmin's Varia bike radars are some of the most popular pieces of cycling tech around – and now the company has delivered its first rearview radar to have been specially designed for some of the best e-Bikes .   Garmin's Varia range mounts to the back of your bike and broadcasts a radar signal behind you, so you can get visual and audible alerts when something's overtaking you. Even better, the new Varia eRTL615 plugs directly into most e-bikes, with no battery required. Because the catchily-named Varia eRTL615 is also a tail light, it'll also make sure you're visible to other vehicles too, promising to emit a flashing or solid light that's visible from up to a mile away in daylight. To connect Garmin's new radar tail light to your e-bike, you'll need to pick the right Garmin adapter cable (which isn't included). You can buy power cables compatible with Bosch, Shimano, or USB-A terminals or connections, with more info on those available on Garmin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Revolution Software is using their own AI technology to remake Broken Sword

TechRadar Gaming is reporting live from Gamescom 2023 on the latest and greatest developments in gaming and hardware. Revolution Software announced at Gamescom 2023 that Broken Sword would be coming back, with Broken Sword - The Shadow of the Templars getting a full remake while a sixth title in the series is coming in the future too, under the title Broken Sword - Parzival’s Stone .  Speaking to TRG ahead of the announcement, Cecil talked about the studio’s plans for a Broken Sword remake and the sixth title in the series. Cecil is a larger-than-life character, who is able to talk about the studio’s plans with enthusiasm. It even carries a pocketful of stones to illustrate the plans for Parzival’s Stone , but he also talks about how Broken Sword - The Shadow of the Templars would be using AI to upscale.  Cecil wasn’t shy about the studio’s use of AI technology, but he gave a fairly robust explanation of why the game was using it. The AI technology will be used to upda...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hackers steal passwords, emails from hookup websites

Two gay hookup websites have been breached with sensitive and personal user data stolen and sold online, new reports have claimed. The databases, which are now being sold on dark web forums, were taken from platforms called TruckerSucker, and CityJerks. They contain enough personally identifiable information to engage in identity theft , such as usernames and passwords, email addresses, profile pictures, sexual preferences, birth dates, postal addresses, IP addresses, and bios. The passwords are encrypted, but according to TechCrunch, the algorithm is “weak” and could be broken by a more persistent hacker. The silent treatment HaveIBeenPwned founder Troy Hunt, who was tipped off on the leak, described the incident as a “typical forum breach, albeit with super sensitive content.”  However the content includes more than just identity data, as there are also messages users exchanged, including arranging meetings and describing their sexual preferences.  In total, more than...
Post a Comment
Read more