Microsoft’s IT outage reveals the fragility of our software systems and the risks of a more serious technology collapse
• Global Microsoft IT outage: latest updates
Planes grounded, trains delayed, television stations off air, hospital appointments cancelled, electronic payments halted. No, it wasn’t the start of a massive cyber-attack from Russia, or the backdrop to a Hollywood blockbuster, but an IT upgrade that unexpectedly went disastrously wrong.
That it had such widespread effects is to some extent testament to the ubiquity of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, a well-known global dependency, and more particularly to a faulty software update pushed out by the security and anti-virus company CrowdStrike to its widely used Falcon software system.
About Author
More Stories
Microsoft unveils chip it says could bring quantum computing within years
Ex-US security officials urge funding for science research to keep up with China
Virologist Wendy Barclay: ‘Wild avian viruses are mixing up their genetics all the time. It’s like viral sex on steroids’