On July 19, the world witnessed a large-scale technical failure, which was a serious blow to the global IT infrastructure. The problem arising from the interaction of Crowdstrike antivirus with Windows operating system, emphasized critical weaknesses depending on modern society on several technological giants. As it turned out, this incident not only violated the work of thousands of organizations, but also criticized the excessive concentration of power in the hands of selected suppliers of technological solutions.
Technical collapse
On the morning of July 19, numerous Ukrainian companies, including Nova Poshta, Sense Bank and Vodafone, reported serious technical failures in their systems. It was later revealed that the problem was related to the updating of the Crowdstrike antivirus software, which was incompatible with Windows, which led to a global failure.
According to Crowdstrike Chairman George Kurtz, the defect was detected in the Windows software update. Instead, Mac and Linux operating systems remained intact. However, the effects of Windows failure were significant: millions of computers have experienced problems that required a difficult and long recovery process.
The vulnerability of the system
This incident has become a prime example of how vulnerable global IT systems can be because of the excessive concentration of power in the hands of several technological companies. Crowdstrike, one of the leading software suppliers to protect the end points, controls approximately 18% of the market of $ 12.6 billion. Together with Microsoft, which dominates the personal computers, these companies have an extremely large impact on the world economy.
Experts, such as Federico Charoski with Quorum Cyber, claim that this incident indicates possible shortcomings in the industry, where the speed of implementation of new solutions can outweighs quality and safety. Mistakes in such systems can lead to significant economic and social consequences, which puts into question the reliability of technological solutions that we rely on daily.
What are the consequences?
The failures of this scale have already caused significant financial losses for many companies, as well as increased concern about technological safety. The incident can also lead to new legal and financial consequences for Crowdstrike, as the company is likely to face numerous claims and penalties.
Critics point out that the concentration of technological power in the hands of several large companies creates serious risks. If one of these giants is a failure, the consequences can be catastrophic for numerous organizations around the world.
Will the industry change?
This incident can be an impetus for rethinking of safety and reliability approaches in the IT industry. It is possible that in the future there will be a need for more distributed and sustainable systems that can reduce the dependence on several large technology suppliers.
