Traffic is at a standstill in Melbourne , Australia. A computer glitch has shut down the automated traffic signs, and in turn caused the closure of main tunnels and traffic routes. What's worse, they still don't know what is causing the software glitch! |
This is the same company that was doing "mirroring" with Veritas Volume Manager across a metro fibre link, rather than using their TrueCopy licenses. For no reason. Two fibre cuts rendered their entire production database (tolling) environment inoperable and nearly irrecoverable, on two separate occasions. I worked about 36 hours straight getting everything back online and was given a pair of movie tickets as a thank-you gift.
The scariest part was every single database of user information was transformed from another database of user information; there was no source of truth, just a great big never ending circle of import & convert that had reached equilibrium and was now stable, provided nothing changed.
It's silly really.
Although I had some responsibility for the tunnel safety systems at the time, we never touched them knowing that any problems would result in the road being closed.
Any idea what type of systems they are running?
Given the time frame of when it happened it's more likely a change that has been borked in some way with difficulties in rolling back.
If mankind can't get a tunnels systems to work all the time, then what about our plans to introduce computer controlled cars? A glitch could wipe out millions of lives before being patched, and even then if they get patched that also introduces huge areas of vulnerability.
I'm sure a stealth program that loads onto a car and waits till a date to kill the occupants will be used by someone or a nation-state in the future.
CityLink spokeswoman Kate Murphy says the tunnels had to close as a precaution.
"It's not just overhead signs [that are not working], it's also our safety systems
as well," she said.
"For example, in the tunnels the deluge systems or the smoke extraction systems
which we may use in an emergency, we can't actually operate those as well,
which is why we've had to take the dramatic measure of actually closing the
tunnels."The variable speed signs always have extra signs along the lines of "(80) if variable limit sign is disabled" as a fallback.
Not being able to handle leaks, fume buildup, fires and other emergency conditions is a completely different story.
Point of trivia: before the current toll road company was given its mandate, our main east-west bridge (the Westgate) held the distinction of being one of the very few toll roads in the world that stopped being tolled when planned, when the cost was paid off. A few years of free travel, then this company was given the rights to the road just beyond the bridge...
The tunnels never were public roads, they didn't exist. You can still drive on pretty much the entire length of the West Gate Freeway, right up to the tunnel portals without paying tolls. There are some short sections of motorway though that were previously un-tolled but are now tolled, though there has been some pretty extensive upgrades.
That said I'm no way in favour of City Link, but the real core 'arterial' for urban commuting is our public transport system. :-)
There are reports in the local press of these kinds of problems: "CityLink says it closed the tunnels because the IT problem affected incident detection and safety systems that are activated in the case of an accident. The network problem also affected the back-up system." ~ http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/melbourne-tun...
And references are being made about inability to communicate to remote devices via the network, "lost the ability to communicate" with its incident detection and safety systems." ~ http://www.itnews.com.au/News/317694,citylink-glitch-shuts-m...
These are tunnels over 3km long. You can't have cops down there without breathing apparatus - even if the extractors were safely operating.
Finding further information about it: looks like a core switch died with the backup not kicking in. 12 hours to work around is a but much though.
If nation states want that they can do it right now:
This is why they say computer glitch and count on the majority of non technical people to not question it.
If the system allowed the user to do something that impacted safetey in such a way, then the computer glitch is that the computer should stop that sort of thing happening. Human error happens a lot and you have to account for it in your designs.
Of course there are times when you have to trust the user because it is not practical to do those tests (in which case the human should have procedure to follow that mitigates the risk), and instances where the user wil override the checks (when the machines say "I really don't think you should do X because Y, click 'I understand the consequences of my propsosed action' to proceeed") - then it is genuinly human error is something goes wrong.
As much as I don't want to sound like a conspiracy person, that level of connection between those components is a bit too much to believe. Especially in Australia where they have insanely high standards for construction/electrical engineering.