Squirrels knocked out Nasdaq twice, putting cyberattack risk in perspective
sebkrier · x · 2026-11-02
A thread argues cyberattack risk is hard to put in perspective: a grid attack shutting down Nasdaq would be a national disaster — but squirrels have done it twice:
- Dec 9–10, 1987: a squirrel caused a power failure at Nasdaq's Trumbull, CT computer center, halting quotes for 82 minutes; 20 million shares went untraded.
- Aug 2, 1994: a squirrel chewed through a power line at the same facility; failover to the Rockville, MD backup center took 34 minutes.
- Rodents remain a notable cause of grid and fiber outages.
The point: scary risks should be weighed against the actual frequency of real-world failures.
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