Crowdstrike Windows outage : a philosophical perspective

 

Today, a very important event happened worldwide: the outage of many computer systems affecting airports, banks, supermarkets, payment systems, and other companies and industries. Reflecting and thinking about it, I realized these philosophical concepts:

Technological Determinism

Our lives are deeply shaped by technology nowadays. Technology has so much power that we depend on it. The problem is that a single fault (e.g., an untested patch in CrowdStrike) can disrupt many sectors and operations.

Human Error and the Fallibility of Systems

There is no perfection in any system; they are fallible. No matter how good or sophisticated the system or software is, human error is a vulnerability to watch for and consider. It can always change the game.

Chaos Theory and the Butterfly Effect

We live in an interconnected world; any small error can have a major outcome.

Trust and Reliance

We rely on technology; for example, we rely on Microsoft Windows to run our flight dashboards and bank systems. Can we trust it after what we have seen? How can a single software, such as CrowdStrike, bring it down?

Ethics of Responsibility

Microsoft and other major infrastructure companies should be responsible and take further precautions to prevent today's event or any harmful event from happening again.

 

Stay Safe

Sulaiman