Re:FAA says computer failure was caused by 2 contractors who...
by tyingq on Saturday January 14, 2023 @11:59AM
(#34381743)
The FAA earlier called it a "damaged database file". I'm not convinced it was data entry exactly.
For example, running "/some/script > data-file" instead of "/some/script < data file" still fits the very generic wording the FAA is sharing publicly.
Could have been accidentally overwriting some idx/dat pair, or some raw database file, etc. Though, yeah, there should still be some controls, troubleshooting tools, logging, etc, that would have made things more clear and recoverable.
Re:FAA says computer failure was caused by 2 contractors who...
by jeffbee on Saturday January 14, 2023 @12:05PM
(#34381792)
An earlier report said that the operator had unintentionally clobbered a database file (the newspaper did not use the word "clobbered" but it is the correct term of art).
For example, running "/some/script > data-file" instead of "/some/script < data file" still fits the very generic wording the FAA is sharing publicly.
Could have been accidentally overwriting some idx/dat pair, or some raw database file, etc. Though, yeah, there should still be some controls, troubleshooting tools, logging, etc, that would have made things more clear and recoverable.