A human configuration error in the New York Stock Exchange’s (NSYE) disaster recovery system prevented the exchange from opening for business.
An incident at the NYSE underscores that IT system management is far from automated as a whole. A human configuration error prompted the NYSE’s disaster recovery system to prevent the exchange from opening for business.
Human error
The NYSE told Bloomberg that an IT employee forgot to turn off the disaster recovery system at a second NSYE datacenter in Chicago.
The system kept running overnight, prompting NSYE’s software to operate as if trading hours had already begun. As a result, the software failed to determine the opening prices of shares.
The exchange had to delay opening. The opening prices of listed shares were declared invalid. A total of 4,341 share transactions in 251 companies had to be deleted.
US market regulator SEC said it will launch an investigation into the incident.