What The Tech : Disruption Follow-Up

CHARLOTTE , N.C. – We know now that the cyber-security company CrowdStrike caused the disruption because they rolled out a software update with a corrupt file, leaving millions of computer systems only showing the so-called “Blue screen of death”.

It did not surprise me that there was an issue with the rollout…. Cyber security expert David Malicoat knew it was not terrorism and he wasn’t shocked, or alarmed“It was…oh man this actually happened.”

What happened was a mistake by the top cybersecurity company in the world whose software protects industries from cyber threats. It illuminates the possibilities of something going terribly wrong when so many companies rely on the same software.

The result was eerily similar to the scenario in the Julia Roberts movie “Leave the World Behind”. Where media companies, the travel industry, banks, and other companies suddenly went off line. Malicoat says right now, many of the critical industries use one of three cloud services.

Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.

“Those are the big cloud providers. if any of those goes down on a wide-scale, we would see something very similar.

Malicoat says, last week’s disruption should be a cautionary tale for businesses with no redundancies in their operating systems. But it should make us all think about our dependence on technology.

Look, if this technology goes away. This phone that in my hand goes away, can I do what I need to do. Do I have water in case the water goes out. If the electricity goes out, do I have enough gas in my car to get where I need to go. Just think of those things in your own personal life”.

Not to sound like an alarmist, but it is something we all should think about. There isn’t much keeping a mistake like this from happening again.