The Fragility of Our Digital World

Life without ones and zeros would be a completely different reality.

Today, we again got a glimpse of how dependent we are on these digital codes when a global technical outage tied to ClowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm in the US, knocked critical computer infrastructure offline worldwide.

Many users across, Europe, Australia, and the US woke up to a blue screen of death (BSOD) on their Microsoft computers after CloudStrike rolled out an update that impacted corporations using its cybersecurity services, including Microsoft.

Now, these corporations and even entire industries are bearing the brunt. Businesses are unable to operate, emergency services—including 911—are disrupted, traffic lights are out, transit systems are halted, major airlines have grounded flights, and news channels are down. Even banks are feeling the sting, unable to process payments.

ClowdStrike has assured us that this is a technical glitch, not a security breach, but the scale of the disruption leaves me with little confidence and raises unsettling questions. If an update glitch can cause this much chaos, what would a coordinated cyber attack look like?

This kind of event starkly highlight the fragility of our interconnected world. Our dependence on digital infrastructure is so deep that if it ever fails, the consequences would be far-reaching.

But before then, go enjoy some good old-fashioned interconnectedness while you can.

– Emmanuel