I am still trying to wrap my head around the mess the wrongly updated software from CrowdStrike has brought to their doorsteps. It is almost unbelievable just how much this one bug has wreaked havoc across all points of the globe, in sectors. As someone who really heavily depends on technology in my day-to-day activities, this kind of incident is a real eye-opener to the vulnerability of our systems.
What bothers me, of course, more is the effect of this on hospitals or health care centers. Just imagine being in a dire state of sickness and being told that their systems are off. Scary, right? I'm glad places like the NHS revert to paper records and handwritten prescriptions with their backup plan. However, fears of potential errors or delays resulting from having to switch back to manual methods cannot completely go away.
What really gets me is the scale of this problem. The foremost institutions ranging from England's NHS to the top of the cancer centers in the United States were hit. I think it underlines what a small place our planet has become, for good or bad.
The CEO of CrowdStrike came forward to clarify that this was not a cyberattack. As much as I find that kind of reassuring, I think it also underlines how fragile our tech infrastructure can turn out to be. Even an update by mistake is going to cause as much disruption as intended malice. It makes me wonder how often these kinds of incidents happen on a smaller scale without us even knowing.
Perhaps what's even worse is when hospitals have to cancel their non-urgent procedures and appointments. I can't even begin to imagine how stressed patients who were waiting their turn for whatever treatment they might have been waiting for must become. It just brings out how dependent modern healthcare is on technology.
I personally do wonder about what this may fortell in the long run. Will companies start to reconsider their dependence on single software providers? Maybe it could even lead to discussing more robust backup systems or ways to test, more and better, the updates. At least, I hope so, because I really don't want to go through such chaos again.
This incident has opened my eyes to how much risk has come with increasing digitization in our world. While the conveniences were highly appreciated, the vulnerabilities of technology do need to get etched in our awareness a lot more. Maybe it's high time we all brushed up on our old nondigital skills, just in case.🤷
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