A massive IT outage swept the world on Friday, taking down critical systems at airports, banks, hospitals and millions of other businesses and causing widespread chaos. The problem appeared to be affecting computers using Microsoft operating systems.
The outages appear to be related to users who are running CrowdStrike as an endpoint detection and response cyber protection tool. It affected both servers and desktops, meaning there is widespread chaos. CrowdStrike is a major global cybersecurity company that provides myriad companies with protection against digital threats. The failure caused Microsoft computers to crash, bringing the screen known as ‘‘the blue screen of death’’. CrowdStrike has been one of the world’s fastest-growing cybersecurity companies in the past few years, as it combined the growing global focus on online threats with the expanding influence of AI. Companies that do not use the CrowdStrike software had not been affected by late on Friday.
The problem was caused by an upgrade to CrowdStrike’s flagship product, the Falcon platform, which it says uses artificial intelligence and other online technologies to detect and stop ongoing cyberattacks. ‘It appears the issue caused a serious global ramifications. This is the time government cybersecurity officials should be informing the community preparing backup procedures and work-around in case the problems spreads further.
IT system administrators must have quick workarounds to get systems back up. Similar issues had occurred in the past with antivirus vendors, where they had pushed an update that has caused a ‘‘blue screen of death’’. It famously happened to McAfee a number of years ago, it can happen again. It is just a function of time… IT systems can and will fail, and therefore, getting ready and having backups, workarounds, credible and functioning well developed cybersecurity policies are mandatory.
See a note the founder of this chapter shared with the African Chapter leaders earlier today ‘… I was travelling in the Gulf region and felt this issue at first hand… when I could not use my credit card to pay for petrol in a country that exports millions of barrel of oil per day to the global markets! Cash only became the norm for a few hours.. but when you are stuck in a car at 45c heat.. and the queue is getting longer, it is normal to feel panic! So it is not just software problem or tech glitch but a much more serious problem that those of us who spent decades in this industry were aware of… and yet found ourselves surprised, shocked! Even some show anger- how dare that this has happened.
Ladies and gentlemen.. this and worse can happen any time. And hence the need to educate all about the ups and downs of technology.. and we should use stronger terms than glitches. It can be beyond travel delays and longer queues. Big tech companies should not get away with failure to do basic testing of their software before deploying into live/production platforms.. this was not updating a package used by a standalone small shop in a very remote village. The global laws should be modified to deal with this kind of crime.. because that is basically what happened yesterday, before long queues at airports and petrol stations, coffee shops turn into queues at hospitals, etc. My 2 cents…’