| Recurring |
one_organization |
(a) In the incident involving Visa's service disruption in Europe, it was reported that a similar incident had happened before within the same organization. Visa admitted that 5.2 million transactions failed during the IT collapse in June due to a hardware switch failure in one of Visa's data centers [72310]. This incident was not associated with any unauthorized access or malicious event but was a result of a hardware malfunction [72372].
(b) The incident involving Visa's service disruption in Europe was not reported to have happened at other organizations. The failure was specific to Visa's systems and data centers, leading to transaction processing issues across Europe [72310, 72372]. |
| Phase (Design/Operation) |
design, operation |
(a) The software failure incident related to the design phase:
- The incident was caused by the failure of a switch in one of Visa's data centers, which was identified as a hardware malfunction [Article 72310].
- Visa maintains redundant data centers for handling transactions, but in this instance, the backup system failed to activate due to a partial hardware failure in the primary data center [Article 72310].
(b) The software failure incident related to the operation phase:
- The failure led to queues at petrol stations and customers being unable to pay at supermarkets due to transaction processing failures [Article 72310].
- Visa's Europe chief executive mentioned that most transactions were processed during the incident, but some cardholders had to try several times, indicating operational challenges [Article 72310]. |
| Boundary (Internal/External) |
within_system |
(a) within_system: The software failure incident with Visa was primarily due to a hardware failure within the system. Visa's Europe chief executive mentioned that the incident was caused by the failure of a switch in one of Visa's data centers, which was a very rare partial failure [72310]. Additionally, Visa stated that the issue was not associated with any unauthorized access or malicious event, indicating an internal system failure [72372].
(b) outside_system: There is no specific mention in the articles about the software failure incident being caused by contributing factors originating from outside the system. |
| Nature (Human/Non-human) |
non-human_actions |
(a) The software failure incident occurring due to non-human actions:
- The incident was caused by the failure of a switch in one of Visa's data centers, specifically a hardware switch malfunction [Article 72310].
- Visa maintains redundant data centers designed to handle all transactions, but in this instance, the backup system failed to activate due to a partial hardware failure in the primary data center [Article 72310].
(b) The software failure incident occurring due to human actions:
- Visa's Europe chief executive mentioned that they do not yet understand precisely why the switch failed at the time it did, indicating a lack of understanding regarding the human actions leading to the failure [Article 72310].
- Visa has hired consultants to produce an independent review into the failure, suggesting a need to investigate potential human factors contributing to the incident [Article 72310]. |
| Dimension (Hardware/Software) |
hardware |
(a) The software failure incident related to hardware:
- The incident was caused by the failure of a switch in one of Visa's data centers, which was a hardware malfunction [72310].
- Visa maintains redundant data centers, but in this instance, the backup system failed to activate due to a partial hardware failure in the primary data center [72310].
(b) The software failure incident related to software:
- The software failure incident was not attributed to a software issue but rather to a hardware failure in the switch at one of Visa's data centers [72310].
- Visa's Europe chief executive mentioned that the core of the problem was a hardware switch failure, not a cyber attack or catastrophic software failure [72310]. |
| Objective (Malicious/Non-malicious) |
non-malicious |
(a) The software failure incident related to the Visa transactions was non-malicious. According to Article 72372, Visa announced that the issue was due to a hardware failure and they had no reason to believe it was associated with any unauthorized access or malicious event. Additionally, in Article 72310, Visa's Europe chief executive mentioned that the core of the problem was a hardware switch failure, rather than a cyber attack or catastrophic software failure. Visa also hired consultants to produce an independent review into the failure and promised compensation to affected parties.
(b) The software failure incident was non-malicious as mentioned above. There is no indication in the articles that the failure was caused by any malicious intent or actions. |
| Intent (Poor/Accidental Decisions) |
accidental_decisions |
[a72372] The software failure incident related to Visa's service disruption was primarily attributed to a hardware failure rather than any unauthorized access or malicious event. This indicates that the incident was more of an accidental decision caused by a rare partial failure in a hardware switch at one of Visa's data centers. Additionally, Visa mentioned that they operate redundant data centers with synchronized systems, but the backup switch failed to activate due to the primary data center's switch malfunctioning. This points towards an accidental decision leading to the failure rather than poor decisions. |
| Capability (Incompetence/Accidental) |
accidental |
(a) The software failure incident occurring due to development incompetence:
- The incident was caused by the failure of a switch in one of Visa's data centers, which was described as a very rare partial failure [Article 72310].
- Visa maintains redundant data centers, but in this instance, the failsafe backup system failed to activate due to a hardware switch malfunction [Article 72310].
(b) The software failure incident occurring accidentally:
- The core of the problem was identified as a hardware switch failure rather than a cyber attack or catastrophic software failure [Article 72310].
- Visa's Europe chief executive mentioned that they do not yet understand precisely why the switch failed at the time it did, indicating an accidental nature of the failure [Article 72310]. |
| Duration |
temporary |
The software failure incident reported in the articles was temporary. The incident lasted from the afternoon of Friday, June 1, at 2:35 p.m. until 12:45 a.m. the following day, which totals to approximately 10 hours [Article 72310]. During this time, there were two periods of peak disruption, with the first lasting for 10 minutes just after 3 p.m. and the second lasting for 50 minutes between 5:40 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. [Article 72310]. The incident was eventually resolved, and Visa's European systems were fully functional by the evening of the same day [Article 72372]. |
| Behaviour |
crash, omission, value, other |
(a) crash: The software failure incident can be categorized as a crash as it resulted in a system losing state and not performing its intended functions. The incident caused millions of transactions to fail, leading to queues at petrol stations and supermarkets as customers were unable to pay [72310].
(b) omission: The software failure incident can also be categorized as an omission as the system omitted to perform its intended functions at instances. Specifically, 5.2 million transactions failed to process properly during the IT collapse, causing significant disruptions for customers in the UK and Europe [72310].
(c) timing: The software failure incident does not align with a timing failure, where the system performs its intended functions but at the wrong time. Instead, the issue was related to the system's failure to process transactions effectively, leading to delays and failures in payment processing [72310].
(d) value: The software failure incident can be associated with a value failure as the system performed its intended functions incorrectly. This is evident from the fact that millions of transactions failed to process properly, causing inconvenience to customers and disruptions in payment processing [72310].
(e) byzantine: The software failure incident does not exhibit characteristics of a byzantine failure, where the system behaves erroneously with inconsistent responses and interactions. The incident was primarily attributed to a hardware switch failure in one of Visa's data centers, leading to transaction processing issues [72310].
(f) other: The software failure incident can be further described as a hardware failure rather than a software-specific issue. The core problem was identified as the failure of a switch in one of Visa's data centers, which caused the system to malfunction and led to transaction processing failures [72310]. |