Enemies will exploit world’s tech fragility
MOST people never think twice about living in a world which is ever more reliant on computer technology.
After all, great advances in IT over recent decades have made almost every aspect of our lives immeasurably easier – saving us time and money.
But it can be a double-edged sword. and yesterday we experienced the nightmarish chaos caused by a global cyber security outage – the largest in history.
A bug in updated anti-virus software from a firm called Cloud Strike caused computers using Microsoft Windows to crash.
It sparked bedlam across the planet. In Britain alone, flights were stuck on the runway and train services ground to a halt. GP surgeries were unable to book appointments or access patient records.
Supermarkets were incapable of taking card payments, forcing shoppers to use cash – or not buy food.
Schools and banking services were hit. even CBBC, the children’s Tv channel, was knocked off air. The meltdown will have inflicted huge economic damage.
Mercifully, it was not a cyber-attack. By early afternoon, a chastened Crowd Strike had admitted the blunder.
But the fact that a single blip in computer software could bring society from london to Sydney almost to a standstill is a terrifying warning of just how vulnerable our cyber systems really are.
It starkly reminds us of the fragility of the IT networks the world relies on – and the dangers of the all-powerful monopolies of giants such as Microsoft.
Naturally, this will have given great heart to hostile states and cyber-terrorists. They can’t have failed to notice this weakness – and will aim to exploit it ruthlessly.
So when it comes to protecting our critical IT, there can be no room for complacency.
Hard questions must be asked. are we using the most resilient systems? are we over-reliant on certain firms? The havoc also exposes the perils of a cashless world.
Computers and broadband run our lives. If they fail catastrophically, our connected nation would be paralysed.