The recent incident underscores our heavy reliance on IT systems. A single faulty update from the American cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike has had widespread global impacts. Our CEO at Dreamlab Technologies, Nick Mayencourt, explains in an interview with Tages-Anzeiger:
"The irony in this case is that Crowdstrike is supposed to increase security for its customers!"
The IT glitch caused bank transfers to fail in South Africa, the 911 emergency number to malfunction in parts of the USA, and halted landings at Zurich Airport. Millions of machines were affected, leading to enormous damage.
Nick Mayencourt emphasises the need to treat IT as critical infrastructure and questions the due diligence of cybersecurity providers:
"There are standardised processes for testing updates before they are deployed in the real world. Very critical questions will now be directed at the company: Do you actually test your updates?"
This incident highlights the dependency on large IT providers and raises the question of whether regulatory interventions are necessary to mitigate such risks.
Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz confirmed that the issue has been isolated and a fix deployed. However, resolving the global impacts could take weeks.
Read the full article in Tages-Anzeiger (subscription required): https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/crowdstrike-nach-it-panne-droht-gigantischer-schaden-635048454343
