The global IT meltdown shows how tech failures could be the chink in our armour to enemies like Russia and China.
In what has been branded the “largest IT outage in history“, major airport, airline, railway and supermarket services across the planet were crippled today.
Now experts have warned that tech outages can leave defence systems more vulnerable from attacks from Putin and his pals.
David Brumley, CEO of ForAllSecure and the firm’s head of developer advocacy, Josh Thorngren, said meltdowns posed great risks for data security.
Brumley said: “When things are down, that doesn’t necessarily mean that China and Russia are going to get access to information.
“But what we see happening in these sorts of situations is people will stand up temporary systems that are less secure, and those often get left behind.”
Brumley noted that the public saw effects of the outage in everyday services, but there would be a host of unseen problems caused for governments.
He said: “Medical services are down, flights are getting delayed and backed up. Planes can’t get in the air.
“Imagine how much is going on the defence side where they rely upon Windows just as much. And that’s internationally.”
“The security implications can’t really be underestimated here.”
Thorngren warned these consequences can be even more concerning.
He said: “Given the scope of what we’re hearing about just in publicly available information, the things you’re not hearing are even more worrisome to some degree.”
The boss said security companies like CrowdStrike are top targets for attacks.
That’s because security software runs with high privileges and doesn’t require user interaction.
Brumley identified three critical mistakes made by CrowdStrike: a latent bug that hadn’t been fixed, inadequate testing of updates, and the lack of an incremental rollout for the update.
The pair called for a shift in how security is integrated into product development.
THE global cyber outage affecting TV channels, banks, hospitals, airports and emergency services appears to relate to an issue at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
IT security firm CrowdStrike ran a recorded phone message on Friday – saying it was aware of reports of crashes on Microsoft’s Windows operating system relating to its Falcon sensor.
A prerecorded message said: “Thanks for contacting CrowdStrike support. CrowdStrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows… related to the Falcon sensor.”
The Falcon system monitors the computers it is installed on and detects hacks and bugs before responding to them.
CrowdStrike, headquartered in Austin, Texas, says it is a global security leader which provides an advanced platform to protect data.
A CrowdStrike update on Friday is said to have caused a critical error in Microsoft operating systems, affecting millions worldwide.
The company regularly updates systems with new anti-virus software
Toby Murray, associate professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems at The University of Melbourne, Australia said: “If Falcon is suffering a malfunction then it could be causing a widespread outage for two reasons .
“One: Falcon is widely deployed on many computers, and two: because of Falcon’s privileged nature.
“Falcon is a bit like anti-virus software: it is regularly updated with information about the latest online threats.
“It is possible that today’s outage may have been caused by a buggy update to Falcon.”.
Cyber expert Troy Hunt told Australian TV network Seven: “It looks like they’ve pushed a bad update, which is presently nuking every machine that takes it.”
They want security features prioritised and product security roles to have the authority to implement necessary changes.
Thorngren said: “At the end of the day, security is as much a feature as something that a consumer sees, some shiny new button in the UI.
“Without an investment in that at the board level down, saying our security roadmap and being proactive and being preventative, that’s an investment we have to make just as much as new features.”
The major tech outage has sparked mayhem – with flights grounded and TV channels and banks knocked offline.
The severe issues at Microsoft have crashed computer systems across the world as major businesses, newsrooms and television networks all plunged into chaos on Friday.
Cybersecurity software firm CrowdStrike say they have identified the issue behind the global outage as a flawed anti-viral update.
The firm are reportedly used by Microsoft to handle various updates to their systems.
The incident had far-reaching impacts, notably in airports where it led to widespread chaos.
Airlines were unable to check in passengers, and even basic airport terminal services were disrupted.
The disruption also extended to banks, healthcare services and other critical sectors, leading to a domino effect of failures.
Senad Aruc – who has has more than 25 years of experience in cybersecurity – said the financial impact of Friday’s “tech doomsday” will cost billions across the globe.
Cybersecurity software firm CrowdStrike say they have identified the issue behind the global outage as a flawed anti-viral update.
When things are down, that doesn’t necessarily mean that China and Russia are going to get access to information because those systems are down.
David Brumley
The firm are reportedly used by Microsoft to handle various updates to their systems.
Microsoft has since announced it is taking “mitigation actions” against the issues.
They said via X: “Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions.
“We remain committed in treating this event with the highest priority and urgency while we continue to address the lingering impact for the remaining Microsoft 365 apps that are in a degraded state.”
A Microsoft spokesperson told Bloomberg that a “resolution is forthcoming”.
CrowdStrike said in a post on their website: “CrowdStrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows related to the Falcon Sensor.”
They confirmed it isn’t a hack or a cyber attack that caused the issues.
rains
Airports and airlines
Television Networks
Britain’s GPs
Global hospitals
Supermarkets and restaurants
Events
Banks and supermarkets in Australia including Beyond Bank Australia have also been experiencing issues this morning.
Various Microsoft services in Japan and New Zealand are also battling tech issues.