- Humanity has become so dependent on modern-day information technology-driven solutions and applications that any disruptions will invariably lead to global repercussions bringing the countries to their knees. The digitization efforts around the world have picked up speed with the ubiquitously dynamic nature of the medium. None of the countries wish to be left behind in ensuring the most modern technologies available are put to good use for the betterment of their economic growth. Some of the cutting-edge IT solutions available have greatly benefited in furthering the cause of humankind. IT-enabled digitization endeavors have simply revolutionized the way the world functions vis-à-vis governance, welfare, and future growth prospects.
PC: The Verge
- No questions asked. However, as is the case with any innovations, inventions, advancements, and technology, unanticipated disruptions would tend to leave behind a ripple effect. The moot point to ponder over here is whether the over-reliance on technology has rendered humankind at the mercy of digital supremacy where disruptions in the system potentially stall activities abruptly. The latest to emerge from this scenario is the outage witnessed recently in a hyperconnected world. When Windows machines simultaneously started Blue Screen on Death (BSOD) worldwide, it looked like the much-prophesied cyber Pearl Harbour was upon us. Then, the critical error indicated by the blue screens was identified and a fix deployed, thankfully fast.
- Nonetheless, even then, there was no sinking into a sigh of relief. As against early speculation about a cyberattack, it turned out that the unnervingly widespread tech outage had been caused by a flawed security update by CrowdStrike. This is a prominent cybersecurity platform, with kernel-level privileges to run across vast computer systems, to detect and protect against threats, ironically. Did the firm tasked to ward off viruses and malware itself violate every good software engineering practice we know, critics are asking. Did the traumatic outages from airlines to banking take place because a software update was rolled out globally without proper testing? This does feel worse than bad guys wreaking havoc.
PC: The Economic Times
- And given the usual nature of licensing agreements in the software industry, particularly the exemptions therein, a comforting level of accountability is also unlikely. Separately, accountability has been missing in action within India as well, when, say, services at AIIMS Delhi were crippled due to an IT outage caused by improper network segmentation. We have become more dependent on a global network of servers and satellites having moved online. We felt this deep vulnerability of interconnectedness during the pandemic too. As more global traffic inevitably gets onto digital highways, one this governments should reconsider is dependence on too few platforms to serve too many critical functions. We should minimize digital risks, you see.
