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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday January 05 2017, @11:58AM   Printer-friendly
from the this-is-jack's-complete-lack-of-surprise dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

If you were trying to enter the US on Monday, queues were much longer than usual. That's because a Christmas software update borked the main computer systems used by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

On Monday, the main passenger checking system used by CBP to check for undesirables trying to get into the Land of the FreeTM fell over.

Lines grew as returning New Year's travelers – not to mention the 100,000 people heading into the annual tech show jamboree that is CES – backed up waiting to be processed.

"CBP took immediate action to address the issue and CBP officers continued to process international travelers using alternative procedures at airports experiencing the disruption," a spokesman told The Register.

"Travelers at some ports of entry experienced longer than usual wait times, and CBP officers worked to process travelers as quickly as possible while maintaining the highest levels of security."

An investigation has been launched, but CBP says it seems that a software update for the system was rolled out on December 28 and didn't work quite as advertised. IT managers out there will be giving a knowing chuckle and rolling their eyes at this – it's not an uncommon problem but one you wouldn't expect in such a crucial system.

[...] One thing CBP is very careful to stress was that this was not a malicious attack. With the US currently embroiled in government hacking fears, it appears that this one can't be blamed on the Russians or the Chinese.


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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday January 05 2017, @06:19PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Thursday January 05 2017, @06:19PM (#449843)

    Came in on Sunday, and the unnecessarily redundant procedures actually went a bit faster than usual.
    Considering the intercontinental flight took off 4 hours late, not getting the usual 90 minutes immigration crap was the best news of the day.

    May I recommend doing the next update on March 1st, or a statistically low-traffic week?

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