Technical difficulties upend service at United Airlines, NYSE and WSJ on bad day for tech

It was a rough day for technology: The nation's biggest airline, its biggest stock exchange, and its most prominent business newspaper all suffered technology problems that upended service for large portions of time Wednesday.

Government officials said the incidents were not related, or the result of sabotage, counter to an endless stream of jokes and conspiracy theories posted on Facebook and Twitter.

First a "router issue" at United Airlines suspended all of the company's flights for nearly two hours, leading to 800 flight delays and 60 cancellations. Then at 11:32 a "technical problem" at the New York Stock Exchange halted trading. In the midst of that, the Wall Street Journal's website, WSJ.com, had "technical difficulties" that sent readers to a temporary site while the paper worked to fix the problem.