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Recent technical outage highlights our vulnerability

Recent technical outage highlights our vulnerability

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SAN FRANCISCO — “Move fast and break things,” a high-tech mantra popularized 20 years ago by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, should be a rallying cry for breakthrough innovation. Now it seems more like an elegy for a society built on a digital foundation too fragile to withstand a broken software program that’s supposed to protect computers — not crash them.

The global technology crisis sparked by a flawed update that cybersecurity specialist CrowdStrike installed on computers running Microsoft’s core Windows software earlier this month was so severe that some affected companies, including Delta Air Lines, were still recovering days later.

It’s a telling moment: one that illustrates the digital pitfalls that lurk in a culture that takes the magic of technology for granted, until it degenerates into a horror show that exposes our ignorance and vulnerability.

“We are utterly dependent on systems that we don’t even know exist until they break down,” said Paul Saffo, a Silicon Valley weatherman and historian. “We’ve become a little bit like Blanche DuBois in that scene in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire,’ where she says, ‘I’ve always relied on the kindness of strangers.’”

‘Chewing gum and laces’ increase risks

The dependency—and extreme vulnerability—starts with the interconnections that link our computers, phones, and other devices. That usually makes life easier and more convenient, but it also means that outages can have far-reaching consequences, whether caused by a bug like CrowdStrike’s or the malicious intent of a hacker.

“Maybe it’s time to look at how the Internet works and then ask why the Internet works the way it does. Because there’s a lot of gum and shoelaces holding it all together,” said Gregory Falco, an assistant professor of engineering at Cornell University.

The risks are compounded by the increasing control of a cabal of companies known as “Big Tech”: Microsoft, whose software powers most of the world’s computers; Apple and Google, whose software powers virtually all of the world’s smartphones; Amazon, which oversees data centers that keep websites running (another key service provided by Microsoft and Google, in addition to the e-commerce bazaar); and Meta Platforms, the social networking hub that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

It’s a highly concentrated empire, with a few corridors open to a network of smaller companies like CrowdStrike — a company with $3 billion in annual revenue, a fraction of the nearly $250 billion in annual sales that Microsoft brings in. All the major players still tend to prioritize the pursuit of profit over a commitment to quality, said Isak Nti Asar, co-director of the program in cybersecurity and global policy at Indiana University.

“We have built a cult of innovation, a system that says, ‘Give technology to people as quickly as possible and fix it when you find out you have a problem,’” Nti Asar said. “We should be moving slower and demanding better technology instead of surrendering ourselves to these feudal lords.”

How did we get here?

But is Big Tech to blame for this situation? Or is it 21st century society that has unwittingly brought us to this point – consumers eagerly buying their next shiny gadget while gleefully posting photos of it online, and seemingly outdone legislators choosing to impose safeguards?

“Everyone wants to blame someone else,” Saffo said, “but I would say you better look in the mirror.”

If our digital evolution seems to be headed in the wrong direction, should we change course? Or is that even possible at a time when some credit card companies are charging their customers if they prefer to have their monthly billing systems delivered via a U.S. postal service that has become known as “snail mail” because it moves so slowly?

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Being stuck in a different era worked out well for Southwest Airlines during the CrowdStrike snafu, since the system still runs on Windows software from the 1990s. It’s such an outdated technology that Southwest doesn’t rely on CrowdStrike for security. But there’s another, less glamorous side to that sword: Southwest played the Luddite card and was hobbled during the 2022 holiday season, when thousands of flights were canceled because the technology couldn’t properly adjust crew schedules.

But it’s becoming increasingly untenable to go back to the analog and early digital era of 30 or 40 years ago, when more tasks were done manually and more documents were processed on pen and paper. Now, technology looks set to become even more ubiquitous, as artificial intelligence looks poised to automate more tasks, including potentially writing the code for software updates that are checked by one computer — which are checked by another computer to make sure it’s not broken.

That doesn’t mean individual households can’t still fall back on some of their old tricks as backups for when technology falters, said Matt Mittelsteadt, a research associate for the Mercatus Center, a research institute at George Mason University. “There’s a creeping realization that some of the things we once scoffed at, like putting a password on a Post-It, aren’t necessarily the worst idea.”

At this point, experts believe that both the government and the private sector need to spend more time mapping the digital ecosystem to better understand the weaknesses in the system. Otherwise, society as a whole could find itself wandering into a field of digital landmines – while blindfolded. Mittelsteadt says: “We have no intelligence about the environment we’re operating in now, other than that there are a ton of ticking time bombs.”