Aviation WX missing

[GLF4]

The mind boggles, how the clowns at SAWS didn't have backups of their web server is amazing...

Or, if on a VM or in the cloud, spin up another instance...

[Segg]

Using ChatGPT or any other generative AI to obtain flight safety information is madness. I've often caught AI making stuff up when it did not know something. Please, do not do it.

100% agree, I have asked Microsofts co-pilot some academic topics regarding aviation, and it was very incorrect when asked to elaborate it would end the chat and reset.

[GLF4]

Don't worry, soon we'll have Skynet to watch over all of us in it's sentient glory...

[Darren Hill]

Using ChatGPT or any other generative AI to obtain flight safety information is madness. I've often caught AI making stuff up when it did not know something. Please, do not do it.

100% agree, I have asked Microsofts co-pilot some academic topics regarding aviation, and it was very incorrect when asked to elaborate it would end the chat and reset.

Simply put, most people don't understand how ChatGPT/similar things work. In layman terms, the entire point of such a GPT is to "best guess" the next character. Fundamentally, it has a rough idea of how certain patterns relate, but it doesn't know anything.

This might be a worthwhile cautionary tale for those doing their PPL/CPL/ATPL exams...

[DaveJ]

It is going to take some time to find a relative who they can hire as a consultant to hire a negotiator to hire a middle man who can negotiate paying the ransom with contract, commission, facilitation and Admin fees.
So I am not holding my breath.

[Jayson v Schalkwyk]

I understand that the weather service is still down.

How is everybody managing to make weather related decisions for their flights with no available weather info?

[BallsOfFire]

I just don’t understand why it is so long down, must be something else we don’t know..

Jason, yes it is though making calls, especiallyith th current weather challenges.

[Jayson v Schalkwyk]

I just don’t understand why it is so long down, must be something else we don’t know..

Jason, yes it is though making calls, especiallyith th current weather challenges.

I went to try check on the SAWS aviation website and it wont even open the page.

Can't be easy for the airline, charter and private folks to be making go/no decisions without having access to even a TAF.

[BallsOfFire]

I just don’t understand why it is so long down, must be something else we don’t know..

Jason, yes it is though making calls, especiallyith th current weather challenges.

I went to try check on the SAWS aviation website and it wont even open the page.

Can't be easy for the airline, charter and private folks to be making go/no decisions without having access to even a TAF.

What makes it though, is if you have to plan, your destination is at or below minimum and your alternative airport as well, you you don’t have enough fuel for a further divert….. This is going to push crew to bust minimums and a Swiss cheese that is busy aligning…..

[Kotze101]

You can find the METARs and TAFs at X (Twitter) here: https://x.com/SAWS_AWC

This seems to be a useful solution for TAFs at the moment, not so much for METARs.

[cage]

It is quite a job to recover from a ransomeware attack, considering the rest of their operation and the muppets that are service providers, it is not a surprise they are down.
If you have no ability to recover, or what you have is encrypted, then you are stuffed six ways from Sunday.
That is before you have to find how you were compromised, prevent it from happening again.
And all this in an incompetent organisation with no skills.

They couldn't keep radar images uploading with any consistency, nor Irenie staying online if it happened to rain.

For that, this is ops normal and they are up shirt-creek without a paddle.

[wynand]

Our hot air balloon operations are very weather sensitive so accurate and high-resolution forecasts are very important. We've been using SAWS Aerosport, especially the spot graphs, since its inception.

Over the past few years, we have increasingly come to rely on https://www.windy.com/ as well. The subscription to the Windy "premium" service is really worthwhile. You can interrogate predictions at altitudes using three cutting edge models (we prefer the ECMWF option).

Useful graphics and data for forecasts are:
Wind, temp, dew point, humidity
Clouds (total, low, medium, high, base, tops)
Thermals
Icing and freezing altitude
Clear Air turbulence

Observations
Weather radar (satellite doppler radar)
Satellite images with frequent updates

[Segg]

It is quite a job to recover from a ransomeware attack, considering the rest of their operation and the muppets that are service providers, it is not a surprise they are down.
If you have no ability to recover, or what you have is encrypted, then you are stuffed six ways from Sunday.
That is before you have to find how you were compromised, prevent it from happening again.
And all this in an incompetent organisation with no skills.

They couldn't keep radar images uploading with any consistency, nor Irenie staying online if it happened to rain.

For that, this is ops normal and they are up shirt-creek without a paddle.

I think this comes down to the saying its not a backup if its not offline and off site

I believe most ransomware attacks are through human error such as opening up a dodgy attachment/link/drive rather than a direct infiltration, again, where are the VM's and backups or doesn't SITA know what those are

[heisan]

I believe most ransomware attacks are through human error such as opening up a dodgy attachment/link/drive rather than a direct infiltration, again, where are the VM's and backups or doesn't SITA know what those are

Most hackers lurk on the systems a while before encrypting them. In that time, they try to make sure that they can encrypt or corrupt backups before they start the ransomware attack.

There have been cases where they have lurked for month, changing encryption keys on backups, to make sure that all usable backup copies are encrypted before they begin.

Companies with bigger IT budgets than the entire annual SITA budget have had their entire systems locked (including DR and backups).

[Segg]

I believe most ransomware attacks are through human error such as opening up a dodgy attachment/link/drive rather than a direct infiltration, again, where are the VM's and backups or doesn't SITA know what those are

Most hackers lurk on the systems a while before encrypting them. In that time, they try to make sure that they can encrypt or corrupt backups before they start the ransomware attack.

No doubt, but what is that initial infiltration? Is it compromised credentials? Poor security policy? Or a dodgy email? I guess if it was straight forward to figure that out it would be a case of restore as far as possible, mitigate and monitor.