Synopsis of Computer Glitch Blamed For Nationwide EBT System Shutdown on Saturday

Computer Glitch Blamed For Nationwide EBT System Shutdown on Saturday

By Old Sarge on National EBT Card Outage

 On 12 OCT 2013, reports began appearing around 0900 EDT on news and social media of EBT cards not being active or unresponsive nationwide. By 1400 EDT, a Boston affiliate of CBS News was contacted by spokespeople from Xerox Corporation, as well as spokespeople from USDA. They claimed that the problem stemmed from a “computer glitch”, involved with “disaster recovery” training, and that the outage had nothing at all to do with the current government shutdown.

ANALYSIS:

An analysis of the states involved in the EBT blackout is revealed by this map:



Note that there is little contiguous regional effect. A political and demographics analysis of the states involved reveals the large Southern belt of states all went for Romney in the 2012 election cycle; the other states voted for Obama. Furthermore, each of the states involved have significant black and/or underclass urban populations.

It is also significant to note that the traffic on social media from the affected areas revealed two highlights: one, there were numerous threats and warnings given as to the imminent start of rioting; and the utter lack of reports of violence associated with this event.

Consultation with a network analyst revealed this observation:

I am a computer developer by trade. I am here to assure you that no upgrades, no backups, no 'drills', no 'testing' like this happens on active-users-on-system time. These sort of things occur only on off-hours. All the explanations offered so far DO NOT MAKE ANY SENSE to this computer developer with over 20 years in the field. 

Furthermore, such a large system is NOT centralized. Have you ever heard of an entire large portion of a banking system going down? An entire branch of a phone system? No, you have not. That is because any large and complex system has many different branches or nodes of operability. The concept that one mistake brings it all down -- or even a lot of it -- is impossible. 

This is clearly a deliberate act, even looking at it from a purely technical basis.

With the increasing tension, political pressure, and high-profile incidents resulting from the government shutdown, as well as the implementation of the ACA, the mood among the nation’s citizenry is volatile to say the least. Taken in parallel with the dramatic rise in racially-motivated attacks by blacks against whites, tension is resting upon a knife’s edge.

It is considered an understood truth that, should the distribution of goods and services to the urban areas be interrupted, mass rioting and societal upheaval would occur, followed in every scenario by the declaration of martial law by the regime. Numerous events of dubious origin and cause, up to and including “false-flag” events, observed over the past five years have further destabilized the veneer of civility across the nation.

CONCLUSIONS:

1. It is imperative to elements of the liberty movement to understand the effects of this event. While the mechanics of the event (the shutting down of welfare payments to urban areas) were quickly resolved and the population placated, the fact that the event occurred at all, and given the questionable response by authorities when queried, leads to speculation that this was a staged event, to judge reactions and the scope of control of the situation.

2. It is recommended that all elements of the liberty movement remain watchful and maintain readiness, should a subsequent event of this type occur. There is virtually no guarantee that the subject population will repeat their complacent response, should there be a longer, prolonged disruption of government largesse.

3. Further recommend that all concerned parties review their local regions and areas of interest, to identify potential threat areas which may develop into impassable terrain following a societal upheaval of this nature.