Five charts to start your day
Have we become too reliant on technology after CrowdStrike
Last Friday, the world experienced the largest IT outage in history, dwarfing previous incidents and even the feared Y2K bug. The culprit was a problematic security update from CrowdStrike that affected Microsoft Windows systems globally.
The repercussions were swift and far-reaching. From Sydney to London, the modern world's digital underpinnings crumbled. Airlines grounded flights, office workers found themselves locked out of their virtual workspaces, hospitals postponed operations and even television channels went dark. The scale was unprecedented, with millions of computers potentially affected.
The cascading nature of this failure was quite extraordinary and demonstrates the fragility of our technological ecosystem. So that is what we are going to focus on in today’s five charts.
So what happened?
CrowdStrike's flawed update triggered a catastrophic chain reaction in Windows computers worldwide. Users were confronted with the infamous "blue screen of death" as machines entered an endless reboot cycle, dubbed the "doom loop". The crisis, likely stemming from inadequate testing, left CrowdStrike scrambling for solutions. IT teams faced a Sisyphean task: manually fix each affected device or pray for a swift remedy from CrowdStrike.
For CrowdStrike and Microsoft, the incident is an embarrassment. For businesses, it highlights the need for a more diversified IT strategy, better infrastructure and a robust disaster recovery plans should this happen again. And for workers everywhere, it offers a moment of reflection on our symbiosis with the digital world – some in China even celebrated an unexpected early weekend.
Source: Flightradar24
Coming up:
How airline cancellations rippled around the world
CrowdStrike’s stock price takes a beating
CrowdStrike goes viral for the wrong reasons
How many people do not use the internet
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How airline cancellation rippled around the world
I really like this data visualisation from the New York Times. You can visually see the knock-on effects the tech outage had across the airline industry, starting at the top with those countries in the earliest time zones.
Sydney Airport in Australia faced immediate disruptions, with similar scenes unfolding across Asia and Europe, including Hong Kong, India, Dubai, Berlin, and Amsterdam. The crisis hit US airspace particularly hard, with at least five major carriers – Allegiant Air, American, Delta, Spirit, and United – forced to ground their entire fleets temporarily, as confirmed by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Interestingly, as the day wore on, disruption decreased and airports managed to adapt and resolve their issues.
Source: New York Times
CrowdStrike’s stock price takes a beating
CrowdStrike's stock price has, for obvious reasons, been punished in the wake of a global tech meltdown. The cybersecurity firm's shares plummeted over 10 percent in premarket trading after a faulty update locked millions out of their Windows devices, bringing airports and media networks to a standstill. Yet, the swift resolution and transparent communication suggest this was a stumble, not a fall.
The incident, while alarming, was not a security breach – a crucial distinction in an industry where trust is paramount. CrowdStrike's cloud-based model, which allows for simultaneous updates across its customer base, proved to be a double-edged sword. It facilitated the rapid spread of the glitch but also enabled a quick fix.
As our digital dependencies deepen, such hiccups may become an unavoidable cost of doing business in the cloud. For CrowdStrike, this could be a valuable learning experience, potentially strengthening its systems against future mishaps. So although embarrassing, this incident might not impact CrowdStrike's business too significantly in the future.
Source: MorningStar
CrowdStrike goes viral for the wrong reasons
CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity darling, also went viral as a brand after this incident for all the wrong reasons. I’ve put together this Google Trends chart, which shows a dramatic surge in search interest following the catastrophic software update.
The graph, resembling a digital seismograph, shows interest in the brand rocketing from obscurity to fever pitch on 19th July, as blue screens of death proliferated across sectors from aviation to healthcare.
For CrowdStrike, the challenge now is to transform this moment of infamy into a testament to resilience and transparency.
Source: Google Trends
How many people do not use the internet
This is an interesting one. How many people in the world are disconnected from the internet? Obviously, the numbers are quite small in the developed world. However, there is a significant proportion of people who are disconnected in certain emerging markets. In the case of Southeast Asia, there are almost a billion people. Globally, there are 2.7 billion people who are disconnected. If the internet went down, these people wouldn’t notice. That’s worth thinking about.
Source: Meltwater