As the global chaos subsides and systems come back online, the massive computer blackout that wreaked havoc around the world on Friday reveals some uncomfortable realities about the foundations of our digital lives, and just how fragile they can be.
The outage demonstrated that even the platform of a huge company like Microsoft, with its vast resources and massive investment in robust system security, could be shaken by an accidental error in a software update issued by an independent cybersecurity firm.
And with a catastrophic impact, because Microsoft computers are at the center of much of our technological infrastructure .
The outage affected 8.5 million devices running Windows, the tech giant’s operating system—less than 1% of all devices using it worldwide, according to Microsoft. Despite this, it likely became the largest global computer blackout to date.
Yesterday on television, a computer expert’s advice for those caught up in the commotion was “to be patient.”
There is no doubt that patience was the last thing many felt at that moment, but honestly, it was the only possible action for most of us.
The problem with having a single IT provider
In the specialist publication Computer Weekly , Owen Sayers wrote that the outage also demonstrated “the immense risk we face if we put all our eggs in the same enormous global basket.”
He was referring to the huge number of businesses, services, and individuals who use a single IT provider . It’s easy and convenient, but it also means there’s no backup plan if that provider suddenly experiences a problem.
There’s an old saying that comfort is the enemy of safety , and this is the greatest example of that I’ve ever seen.
As a consumer, it’s difficult to avoid this dominance: if you shop in a store and pay by card or phone, you’re relying on someone else’s technology to process your transaction seamlessly. It’s becoming increasingly unlikely that you’ll have any other option: many businesses no longer accept cash.
For small businesses, budgets are tight.
“In some cases, a single provider is the only option due to costs,” says Alina Timofeeva of BCS, a British IT institution.
“The reasoning is that the supplier is so large and powerful that companies do not foresee that it could fail.”
Possible Plan B
What happened on Friday was not a cyberattack, and Microsoft was quick to point out that the outage was not their fault, although it’s clear that questions remain about exactly how the disastrous Falcon update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike slipped in
On BBC Radio 4’s Today program , computer scientist Nigel Shadbolt asserted that most computer systems similar to CrowdStrike software operate at “very high quality levels”.
But when they fail , “it’s like a pandemic ,” he said, and lessons can be learned from that.
The reason this blackout caused so much chaos is because millions of companies, services, and platforms around the world operate their technological infrastructure on the same products.
Professor Shadbolt stated that the priority is “resilience”; in other words, having a plan B.
“Perhaps we could consider having multiple systems, not just relying on one,” he suggested.
If we proceed in this way, it might be possible to avoid large-scale seismic disruptions if fewer people depend on them, Kleinman says, but we would also be introducing multiple systems with multiple potential vulnerabilities , which could make them easier to hack.
The blackout occurred during a period of peak air traffic. In the UK, it was the busiest day of the year at airports, coinciding with the start of the school holidays and families preparing to travel.
Several airports have been able to resolve their problems, but the domino effect means that many travelers will still be trying to get home or go on vacation.
Although the flaw has been corrected, experts indicate that restarting each affected Microsoft computer will take some time.
