The USA did not issue visas for more than two weeks due to computer malfunction
For more than two weeks, no one in the whole world could get a visa to enter the United States of America. The official reason sounded by the US State Department on Monday is the failure of computer equipment. Currently, about 2/3 of the total number of visa centers in the world are working. No hackers are to blame this time - according to experts, the problem lies in the system itself.
On average, 50,000 people around the world apply to visa application centers per day. And all this mass accumulated while the department’s staff frantically struggled with a computer problem. As explained by John Kirby, a representative of state companies, the problem arose with the functionality of checking photos and fingerprints.
Ashley Garrigus, a representative of the bureau of the consulate (Bureau of Consular Affairs), explained that the system had a backup — but when the employees switched to it, it was also out of service — the data was damaged and could not be used.
How it turned out that a country with one of the most powerful economies in the world did not have the means and competent specialists to ensure the smooth operation of such an important system - it is difficult to say. In this regard, one involuntarily recalls a fire at the main office of the Russian Post two years ago, which caused their Internet server to work from the back room.
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It would be possible to understand and forgive the failure, which would not be corrected over the weekend, or at Christmas - but it’s hard to believe that specialists in the State Department cannot work on computers for two weeks. Indeed, almost at the same time of the year, in July in 2014, the roasted rooster was already biting the State Department’s computer system, which also fell off for several days.
Moreover, John Kirby assures that "more than 100 specialists and computer experts, both government employees and employees of commercial organizations, worked around the clock on this problem."
All this time, the department issued visas in manual mode, giving priority to applications for medical necessity or other cases. It remains to sympathize with businessmen whose deals failed, to journalists who did not get to the exhibitions, and to all those who bought the tours, plane tickets and hotel bookings.
On average, 50,000 people around the world apply to visa application centers per day. And all this mass accumulated while the department’s staff frantically struggled with a computer problem. As explained by John Kirby, a representative of state companies, the problem arose with the functionality of checking photos and fingerprints.
Ashley Garrigus, a representative of the bureau of the consulate (Bureau of Consular Affairs), explained that the system had a backup — but when the employees switched to it, it was also out of service — the data was damaged and could not be used.
How it turned out that a country with one of the most powerful economies in the world did not have the means and competent specialists to ensure the smooth operation of such an important system - it is difficult to say. In this regard, one involuntarily recalls a fire at the main office of the Russian Post two years ago, which caused their Internet server to work from the back room.')
It would be possible to understand and forgive the failure, which would not be corrected over the weekend, or at Christmas - but it’s hard to believe that specialists in the State Department cannot work on computers for two weeks. Indeed, almost at the same time of the year, in July in 2014, the roasted rooster was already biting the State Department’s computer system, which also fell off for several days.
Moreover, John Kirby assures that "more than 100 specialists and computer experts, both government employees and employees of commercial organizations, worked around the clock on this problem."
All this time, the department issued visas in manual mode, giving priority to applications for medical necessity or other cases. It remains to sympathize with businessmen whose deals failed, to journalists who did not get to the exhibitions, and to all those who bought the tours, plane tickets and hotel bookings.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/381079/
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