US authorities versus… kitty.
Out of the Bag
A four-hour outage in a Kansas City, Missouri Veterans Affairs Medical Center’s (VAMC) pc system could or could not have been attributable to a cat-on-keyboard scenario, The Register experiences.
Per the report, the system malfunction in query took place in mid-September. Shortly after that, because the Register’s supply claims, it was defined on a “common weekday name” held by the US authorities’s Department of Veterans Affairs and its CIO that the outage occurred whereas a “technician was reviewing the configuration of a server cluster.” A cat, the supply mentioned, hopped on the technician’s keyboard, by accident deleting the server — and the government-held medical data that it contained.
It’s not fairly “the canine ate my homework,” but it surely’s definitely in the identical pet store. Speaking of, Kurt DelBene, assistant secretary for info and know-how and CIO on the VA division, responded to the incident report through the name by saying one thing alongside the strains of “for this reason I’ve a canine,” in accordance with the Register’s supply.
Paw Patrol
The US authorities division confirmed that the outage took place, although abstained from commenting on whether or not a feline pal was certainly the offender.
“On September 13, 2023, the Kansas City VAMC skilled a difficulty with picture switch inside Vista as a consequence of an inadvertent deletion of server profiles,” VA press secretary Terrence Hayes informed the Register over e mail. “The subject was shortly recognized and the system restored inside 4 hours.”
“There have been no additional points,” Hayes added, “or direct impacts to veterans from this incident.” However, when particularly pressed on the cat’s involvement, the spokesperson declined to reply.
Hayes’ reluctance to verify or deny definitely feels prefer it speaks volumes, and this would not be the primary time {that a} kitty’s love for tromping throughout a pc keyboard brought on some IT grief; because the Register notes, dozens of on-line message boards function aggrieved netizens asking how they may restore numerous cat-deleted paperwork and digital libraries.
However widespread, although, it is simply not one thing we typically count on to occur in a scenario involving government-retained affected person medical data. Consider this a pleasant reminder that even essentially the most sudden of digital programs will be sufferer to deeply absurd and mundane mishaps — and the following time any of the VA’s cat-owning technicians are tasked with shifting mentioned affected person data round, we would advocate that they momentarily lock themselves in a cat-free room.
More on cats: Scientists Discover That Cats Simply Do Not Give a Crap
