NYSE Stopped trading, United Airlines grounded flights worldwide, WSJ website inaccessible - all in one day

NYSE stopped trading for about four hours while United Airlines grounded its flights worldwide and Wall Street Journal's website was inaccessible. These events simultaneously happened in the same day that caused alarm among the general public.

The NYSE blackout that lasted for almost 4 hours was due to the malfunction in system upgrade according to its officials. Time reports that the investor gateways turn out to be incompatible with the system upgrade rolled out on Wednesday. They were not updated with new data to work in conjunction the upgrade sending a series of message pop-outs as soon as the investors log in. All NYSE trading were suspended at 11:32 AM Easter Time, 23 minutes after it sent out a message saying there's an on-going investigation with a technical issue. Although the system upgrade is already planned in advance and technical glitches could occur in such activities, people couldn't help but speculate due to the severity of its effects where it actually stopped the entire NYSE trade for 3 hours and 38 minutes. Market watchers and the general public were also stunned to know that at about the same time two other important public networks ceased operation due to a 'technical glitch.'

United Airlines grounded flights worldwide and announced that it was caused by a network connectivity issue. It was later reported that the glitch was due to a bug in its iPads software. NY Times reports that the bug gave inaccurate airport maps to pilots. The passengers waited almost two hours before the airline resumes operations. The report adds that passengers were not able to get online boarding passes even after the flights issues were resolved. The public gets even more bothered upon added news that Wall Street Journal was also experiencing a technical glitch at that very same day and time frame.

Wall Street Journal experienced a 504 error that prevents access to the website. Visitors of the website were greeted with a plain white page stating the 504. Wall Street says its investigating the reason for the error and have yet to announce news on their findings.

The simultaneous events on the three networks were briefed to President Obama although the Department of Homeland Security was quick to address public concerns by stating that the events doesn't provide evidence of cyber attacks.