For NS, Another Tech Outage Pauses Operations
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
(Norfolk Southern Photograph)
Norfolk Southern’s (NS) data center on Sept. 29 experienced a technology outage that impacted the dispatching system, train movements, and functionality of the terminal operating system. Operations were halted, NS reported, “until the issue was safely and successfully resolved” at 1:30 a.m. ET on Sept. 30.
NS on Sept. 30 said it “found no indication” that the outage was related to an “unauthorized cybersecurity incident” or the Aug. 28 outage caused by a data storage maintenance error. The Class I “believe[s] at this time that it relates to a vendor product defect,” and is continuing “to examine the root cause of the incident.” Additionally, NS said it has undertaken a “total review of the resiliency of its data center and network technology to prevent future outages.”
The incident’s impact to operations is expected to last “at least a couple of weeks as we work to mitigate traffic congestion caused by the outage,” according to NS, which noted that its Marketing team is working to keep customers informed.
