Another Big Tech Outage; Hurricane Helene’s Devastation–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Sept. 30, 2024

Indy Digest: Sept. 30, 2024

The country is dealing with yet another massive tech outage today.

CBS News reports:

Verizon customers across the U.S. reported problems accessing the company’s wireless network, with some reporting Monday morning that their phone service was down and limited to SOS mode.

As of 10:11 a.m. ET, more than 100,000 reports of Verizon outages had been logged with DownDetector, a site that tracks service outages for telecommunications providers, websites and other businesses.

Outages were reported from New York to Los Angeles, with the main complaint linked to lack of service on customers’ mobile phones. Customers began reporting problems shortly after 9 a.m. ET, with some turning to social media to ask Verizon for refunds.

“It’s been over two hours and we don’t even know why this is happening. We all pay a pretty penny for our Verizon bill, this time should be compensated until the issue is fully resolved,” one customer posted to Verizon’s customer support account on X.

Reuters reports that the mess has spurred an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission. It’s worth noting that Verizon has 114.2 million subscribers in the United States, according to CNN.

While this mess pales in comparison to the CrowdStrike debacle in July, it’s just the latest reminder that 1) our communications and tech systems are fragile, and 2) you need to be as prepared as possible for inevitable outages.

We, like many of you, use Spectrum for internet access at our home office. In the case that fails, we have a T-Mobile hotspot. (Actually, we have two: on the phone, and another separate device.) If they should both fail, we have other places we can go that might not be dealing with outages.

If all of that fails? Well, we’re down and out, at least as far as the internet goes.

The longer I’ve been a newspaper publisher, the more concerned I’ve become about tech failures. In addition to the internet and work-location backups, I have not one, but two backup computers I could use if needed.

Do have backup systems for harmful outages? If not, and there are systems you can afford to put place, you probably should. Just ask people who were depending in Verizon today.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• The destruction caused by Hurricane Helene is immense and awful—especially in North Carolina. The Associated Press reports that the death toll across the South from the storm is 132 and counting. For on-the-ground coverage, consider checking out Asheville’s Citizen Times (a Gannett paper that’s doing amazing work right now), the Smoky Mountain News and the Mountain Xpress, to start.

• Related: NPR reports that flooding in Spruce Pine, N.C., could disrupt solar panel and microchip supply chains because the place is the country’s only source of high-quality quartz: “Semiconductors are the brains of every computer-chip-enabled device, and solar panels are a key part of the global push to combat climate change. To make both semiconductors and solar panels, companies need crucibles and other equipment that both can withstand extraordinarily high heat and be kept absolutely clean. One material fits the bill: quartz. Pure quartz. Quartz that comes, overwhelmingly, from Spruce Pine. ‘As far as we know, there’s only a few places in the world that have ultra-high-quality quartz,’ according to Ed Conway, author of Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization. Russian and Brazil also supply high-quality quartz, he says, but ‘Spruce Pine has far and away the [largest amount] and highest quality.’”

• Our partners at CalMatters explain why Gov. Gavin Newsom said he vetoed a bill meant to regulate AI: “The legislation, Senate Bill 1047, would have required testing of AI models to determine whether they would likely lead to mass death, endanger public infrastructure or enable severe cyberattacks. Newsom in his veto letter criticized the bill for potentially ‘curtailing the very innovation that fuels advancement in favor of the public good.’ He also said it would have needlessly regulated AI used in low-risk situations and that it was written without enough research. ‘A California-only approach may well be warranted—especially absent federal action by Congress—but it must be based on empirical evidence and science,’ he wrote. The bill applied only to the costliest AI models, needing $100 million or more to develop, and Newsom objected to that threshold, saying cheaper tech can still be harmful.”

• A grace period for student-loan payments is ending today. CNN explains: “When student loan payments resumed last year after a three-plus year pandemic-era pause, the Biden administration provided what it called an ‘on-ramp period’ through Sept. 30, 2024. During that 12-month period, borrowers were shielded from the credit-damaging consequences of missing a payment. Student loan servicers were not reporting missed, late or partial payments to the three national credit bureaus. Data from the credit bureau TransUnion suggests many borrowers have taken advantage of the on-ramp period. The data shows that just over half of borrowers who should have been making payments have actually made them over the past year. The end of the grace period comes as the fate of a generous student loan repayment plan, created by the Biden administration last year, is uncertain. The SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education) plan is currently on hold as litigation plays out. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 15 at the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals.”

• This NBC News headline makes me so, so sad: “Study establishes first causal link between anti-trans laws and suicide attempts.” Some details: “The Trevor Project surveyed more than 60,000 trans and nonbinary young people (ages 13-24) about their mental health from 2018 to 2022, a period in which 19 state governments enacted 48 laws targeting trans people, particularly youth. These included restrictions on transition-related care for minors and laws that bar trans student athletes from playing on the school sports teams that align with their gender identities. The study compared suicide-related outcomes for trans and nonbinary young people in those 19 states to the outcomes for trans and nonbinary youth in states that did not enact any such laws. It found that these laws caused an increase in suicide attempts among trans and nonbinary youth by an estimated 7% to 72%. The range of estimates is large because it includes the percent increase for five time periods from 2018 to 2022, and the estimated percent increase differs depending on time period and the age range of participants.”

• Today’s recall news involves … lots of automobiles! USA Today says: “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued multiple recalls last week, including notices for more than 77,000 Mazda vehicles due to an airbag issue. … You can search NHTSA’s database for new recalls. The NHTSA website allows you to search for recalls based on your vehicle identification number or VIN.” The story has details on recalls of some Fiats, General Motors vehicles, Mercedes-Benz vehicles and even Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

• And finally … Wired explains how the existence of the Internet Archive, which maintains the oh-so-valuable Wayback Machine, is being jeopardized by lawsuits. It’s a complicated piece, but worth a read. A tidbit: “The Internet Archive’s defense hinges on fair use. It argues that preserving obsolete versions of these records, complete with the crackles and pops from the old shellac resin, makes history accessible. Copyright law is notoriously unpredictable, and some find the Internet Archive’s case shaky. ‘It doesn’t strike me, necessarily, as a winning fair use argument,’ says Zvi Rosen, a law professor at Southern Illinois University who focuses on copyright.“

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