27 May BA IT outage miscellaneous discussions thread
 

Anything that is not directly related to 27 May BA IT outage can go here, such as discussions of wider IT issues (rather than updates on what seems to be working or not at the moment) etc.

This is so that the main IT outage thread can be free of clutter so that people who are directly affected by the disruption can find factual information quickly without wading through all sorts.

If you affected by the disruption, please go to the main IT outage thread if you want to seek help/advice.

Thank you for your cooperation.

LTN Phobia
Moderator: BA forum

Best of luck moderating the other thread!

https://image.ibb.co/iFBGJF/IMG_0021.jpgTo kick off, I just saw this PPC ad in my FB feed. Suffice to say that they're getting some flack in the comments for breezily encouraging people to "reconnect" today...

Agreed. I'd like to see BA argue in court that this was outside their control. Even if it was lightning, a hack or something else; backup, redundancy, firewalls and UPS should all be level 1 for this airline. Clearly they are not. Managements failure!!

My clients expect a backup to be up and running in "X" if there is an outage. "X" depends on the need of the system, it's criticallity to the business and the volume of data being processed. They are part of an NFR. i.e Cloud systems should be seamless. Legacy systems, the 1980's backbone, should revert to an off-site data centre, again with minimal disruption.

You can just tell that the first round of EC261 claims will be rejected stating that power failures are beyond their control and as such they're not liable to pay up.

I wonder if they'd dare contest an MCOL though. I can't see how you can defend that not having any backup provision for an IT system that every piece of your worldwide infrastructure depends on not being your fault.

Best of luck to all those stuck out there though.

If the local power distribution blows up (just like it was at Delta) the company IS liable for this.

Probably not right in this thread, but not necessarily. This white paper I authored covers the scenarios.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/dn798994.aspx

My intel sources suggest this may have been a cyber attack. We need additional sources to confirm this. If any further intel reaches me, I will post whatever I can.

Quite. How can a company the size of BA that is so dependent on its IT systems be put out of operation because of a failure at a single data centre. I'm incredulous at the management that have allowed such a situation to arise.

Well Alex Cruz has specifically said no evidence of a cyber attack in a statement earlier this evening.

He may well have said this. I am not saying that this is not the case, nor that cyber attack is the reason. Simply passing on what colleagues working in critical national infrastructure have told me this afternoon. Time will tell.

Power failure = EU261 for inadequate provision of backup. No?

Cyber attack = get out of jail relatively free. Yes?

Watching with interest, as not flying BA for a couple of weeks. But become less enamoured by BA every month :( So sad.

If you have sought advice/help on this thread and you cannot find your post, most likely it has been moved to: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ee-please.html

LTN Phobia
Moderator: BA forum

An interesting dilemma for lawyers to debate.

Meanwhile I am flying to an event in China (via BA and a Chinese carrier) next weekend. I am taking neither my laptop nor my usual phone. I have a burner phone with a separate SIM card and a temporary web mail account for that trip.

Until I see evidence to the contrary I cannot subscribe to the hack theory. BA's recovery actions thus far do not make sense were this to be the root cause (since normal practice would be to isolate and protect the affected systems for forensic analysis).

However I also would disagree that a security issue somehow discounts them from liability under EC261; it's still a technical system under BA's management - and therefore they are ultimately responsible for any vulnerabilities therein.