The Microsoft Outage: A Wake-Up Call for Family Preparedness

A regular software update on Friday set off a chain reaction of absolute chaos that affected every major global organization, including banks, airlines, retail stores, food establishments, and law enforcement. The resulting outcome could be the greatest worldwide IT failure in recorded history.

BSOD all over the worldPhoto byRichelleg

It was not a cyberattack; rather, one of the biggest cybersecurity firms in the world released a faulty update in an attempt to protect its clients from online threats. Based in Austin, Texas, CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity company that is frequently utilized by government agencies and enterprises that use Microsoft PCs. The company stated that the problem was caused by a flaw in one of their patches for Windows-based machines. Some reports indicate that PCs that were powered off during the software update seem to have escaped the BSOD.

What led to it?

Cybersecurity companies like CrowdStrike automatically update to take into account new strategies that hackers are constantly deploying. This highlights the vulnerability of the world's commerce network, which is completely dependent on a single operating system.

The CrowdStrike upgrade ought to have been standard procedure, but a coding flaw caused Windows to crash worldwide, which ended up being disastrous. While some computers will fix themselves, others will need actual manual repair.

Air travel came to a halt, as did multiple other agenciesPhoto byRichelleg

What's the lesson?

While Microsoft and CrowdStrike are not calling this a cyber attack, today's events should open your eyes to just how important it is to have a plan, a pack, and a pantry full of preserved foods. What if things didn't come back online? What if all the systems that presented with blue screens, all the grounded flights, all the 911 call centers, traffic controllers, gas stations, food, manufacturers, hospitals.. what if they didn't come back online? Sure, IT would scramble for a fix, but that fix could take days, weeks, even months. They would focus on large cities first.

Make a planPhoto byRichelleg

Please take this time to prepare yourself and your family for anything and everything. Start putting cash away if you can, in coffee cans like our elders did. Grab a few books on survival, food preservation, water collection, gardening, animal husbandry, and first aid. Please don't leave it up to someone else to make sure you can survive.

Microsoft key on a laptopPhoto byRichelleg

Citations:

Global tech outage live updates: Flights grounded and offices hit as internet users face disruptions. (2024, July 19). AP News. https://apnews.com/live/internet-global-outage-crowdstrike-microsoft-downtime

Suliman, A., Aratani, L., Gilbert, D., Lerman, R., Ziegler, H., Lee, J., Zakrzewski, C., Schneider, G. S., Achenbach, J., Hunter, T., Mark, J., Telford, T., Ovide, S., Peiser, J., Portnoy, J., Fowers, A., Sampson, H., Andrade, S., Siegel, R., . . . Cheung, H. (2024, July 19). Live updates: After massive IT outage for airlines and health care, officials see signs of recovery. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/07/19/microsoft-windows-outage-blue-screen-bsod/

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/19/business/microsoft-outage-cause-azure-crowdstrike.html