November 01, 2003 — CSO —
| Name | Blackout 2003 (The North America Blackout of 2003) | The Blaster Worm (W32.Blaster or LovSan) |
| Date | August 14, 2003 | August 11, 2003 |
| Described as | -"The largest blackout in North American history." -"An avalanche of failure." | -"A dud." |
| Noted negative effects | -Disrupted the water supply in Ohio.-Disrupted global business.-Forced thousands to evacuate hot, dark subways, without food, cash or communication. | -Gamers became totally pissed at Bill Gates about losing broadband connection, forced to text message friends on cell phones all night. -Mom couldn't get e-mail because the whatchamajig wouldn't let her click on the whoozywhatzit. |
| Heartwarming human interest story | Maureen Angelastro of Hoboken, N.J., gives birth to identical twins during blackout. | Tommy Smith, 14, of Hackensack, N.J., has computer crash, is forced to actually talk to his parents, and decides maybe they're not so bad after all. |
| Vulnerability | 50 million American and Canadian citizens. | 423,000 computers running Microsoft software. |
| Advance notice | Report warned of electric grid's shortcomings in May 2003. | Microsoft released patch in July 2003. |
| Blame | FirstEnergy CEO: "It is not possible at this time to pinpoint the 'causes' of the outage." | Microsoft spokesman: "Ultimately, it's a flaw in our software." |
| Google search hits | 206,000 | 739,000 |
| Predicted effects | -Massive scrutiny/debate on energy deregulation. -Profound attention during 2004 presidential election. -Baby boomlet May/June 2004. | -Continued bitching, moaning about software patches. -DHS warns that the next one could be the Big One |
| Schadenfreude moment | Energy company CEOs on Capitol Hill, under intense questioning, sweating as if a power outage had knocked out the A/C. | Message inside worm: "I just want to say LOVE YOU SAN!! billy gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!" |
| Lessons learned | -Store more batteries, transistor radios, light sticks and diesel fuel for emergencies. -Be prepared. | -Software kinda stinks. -Be prepared, don't be, who cares. There's nothing you can do about it. |
Read more about data protection in CSOonline's Data Protection section.
Other stories by Scott Berinato
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