The New York Stock Exchange went back online at 3:10 p.m. EST last Wednesday, July 8, after a technical glitch caused nearly four hours of downtime.
Business inside the NYSE came to a halt at 11:30 a.m. EST., which the exchange attributed to a "technical issue." "We're experiencing a technical issue that we're working to resolve as quickly as possible," read NYSE's first Twitter post, the first of a two-part official statement on the downtime.
NYSE promised a swift resolution of the issue and periodic updates on the situation. "We're doing our utmost to produce a swift resolution and will be providing further updates as soon as we can," read the exchange's second Twitter post and second part of the statement.
Rumors that the NYSE was hacked surfaced right away after a group of cyber-vigilantes known as Anonymous issued an ominous statement last July 7 through its Twitter page. "Wonder if tomorrow is going to be bad for Wall Street.... we can only hope," read Anonymous' taunting tweet a night prior to the NYSE glitch.
In an interview with CNBC, New York Stock Exchange president Thomas Farley dimissed the hacking rumors and said: "I can't say with precision exactly what drove it. We found what was wrong and we fixed what was wrong, and we have no evidence whatsoever to suspect that it was external."
Farley added that the halt could not happen again and the NYSE wouldn't find igtself in the same situation. He also noted that a change in protocols was needed but held back on any specifics, saying he was not prepared to reveal anything.
Josh Earnest, White House Press Secretary, supported Farley and said there was no indication of the involvement of malicious "actors" in the incident. While the NYSE shutdown was ongoing, NASDAQ traded NYSE-listed stocks.
The technical issue was addressed three hours and forty minutes later. The NYSE reported that all systems were functioning normally at exactly 3:10 p.m. EST. Trade returned to normal afterwards.
