Computer Crash Sends Rockies Selling Out World Series Tickets

The online ticketing system of Colorado Rockies' crashed on October 22, which computer experts say, like the company insists, was due to insufficient computer "horsepower" and not the aim of an external attack.

The Rockies gave a curt justification for the computer system's crash, stating that the fans and the team had fallen prey to an "external malicious attack". On October 23, 2007, Rockymountainnews published the statement of Jay Alves, Rockies' spokesman, where he leveled the malevolent attack charge for the second time without providing details.

Bob Bowman, the CEO of MLB.com, Major League Baseball's Internet wing, gave out a different explanation stating that powerful computers overloaded the system. Those computers were programmed to continuously generate five-digit codes meant to authenticate that an actual human is buying tickets. Bowman said that those computers were clogged from buying tickets, but they didn't stop attempting to re-connect, leading to a choked up system which ultimately dismantled the entire set-up. This is as per the ABCnews of October 23.

A handful of computer insiders believe that the problems could have resulted with ticket brokers employing powerful computers to collect tickets in bulk quantities leading to heavy traffic in the ticketing system which ended up jamming the system.

But other Internet security and computer experts pointed towards a shortage of the computer server's computing capacity and failure to distribute traffic across the servers resulting in the crash and the system's dismal performance.

Another picture that was presented was the possibility that computer hackers flooded the ticketing system with several false requests to acquire tickets. The objective behind doing so could either be to create massive upheaval and to upset a competitor in order to settle scores.

Nevertheless, experts rubbished off the "malicious attack" theory, noting that hackers are driven by monetary gains, rather than grid-locking an organization or company's Website, as it would be a complete waste of their resources and lacking in interest. However, the experts maintained an ambivalent stand saying that the probability of an external attack couldn't be completely ruled out, but granted that it was uncertain.

Related article: Computer Virus Writers Adopt New Strategy

» SPAMfighter News - 11/8/2007