Two Juniper Networks routers in Arkansas and Texas flooded the Federal Aviation Administration’s telecommunications network with connection attempts and disrupted 17 of 22 air traffic control centers during Friday’s nationwide ground stop, according to the Wall Street Journal and Reuters. After contractor L3Harris installed the Arkansas router during a copper to fiber line upgrade, a broadcasting feature sent data more broadly than necessary at a rate of more than 1,000 connection attempts every four to five seconds.
Disconnecting the two devices stabilized the network, and the FAA disabled the broadcasting feature across roughly 60 Juniper routers nationwide. Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which owns Juniper Networks, said the devices did not fail, while investigators are still examining whether faulty equipment, installation or configuration caused the outage. A union representing FAA technicians said the two contractor owned routers were updated midday without its members’ involvement or a risk assessment by agency employees, though an official said the FAA conducted a safety assessment.
