Economy & Tech

EDITORIAL | Digital Society's Risks Exposed in Global Systems Failure

Companies and end users can take additional precautionary steps. Individual efforts can add up to sturdier crisis management for our digital society.

Published

1 month ago

July 26, 2024

Editorial Board, The Sankei Shimbun

A monitor screen at an airport in New Jersey turned blue after the mammoth system outage on July 19. (©Reuters via Kyodo)

The services offered by giant digital companies are easy to use. That has attracted many corporate customers as well as regular consumers. Nonetheless, as our dependency on these services grows, so too does the risk that failure of those services will have a devastating impact on our lives.

*People line up at the check-in counter at an international airport on the outskirts of Berlin, Germany, where the system failure affected airlines on July 19. (©Getty Images/Kyodo)*

The worldwide systems failure that occurred on July 19 (Japan time) sounded the alarm. It warned us about our current situation as well as highlighted the fragility of our digital society.

A system running Microsoft Windows, the core operating system (OS) for the US IT giant, suffered a failure. It was caused by a bug in the software update of Falcon developed by the US cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.

According to Microsoft, an estimated 8.5 million electronic devices running Windows were affected by the system failure. Moreover, the impact was global, with key transportation and finance systems being among those affected. Essential services such as hospital and government services were also disrupted.

Airlines were especially hard hit. The aviation information website FlightAware estimates that 40,000 flights were delayed and 5,000 canceled worldwide. The impact also reached Japan, with the low-cost carrier (LCC) Jetstar Japan canceling flights one after the next.

This system failure has exposed the risk of relying on a limited number of IT services.

*People wait to check in at the international departure lobby of Kansai Airport, where the system failure caused flight disruptions on July 19. (©Kyodo)*

Minimizing the Risks

In a digital society like ours, it is easy for a handful of easy-to-use IT services to dominate the market. In this case, Falcon is the software that caused the system failure. It has also been adopted for use by companies and government agencies wary of cyberattacks. Capable of constantly monitoring PCs and other electronic terminals for anything abnormal, it is in use by nearly 30,000 customers worldwide.

All IT companies with large global market shares, not just CrowdStrike, must be cognizant of the weight of their responsibility. In the future, they must take the greatest care to prevent such large-scale service disruptions.

Customers should also consider alternate plans in advance of an emergency. Even if it is impossible to have in place a complete substitute, steps can be taken to prepare for unforeseen circumstances. For example, customers can back up their data and have duplicate systems. All of our individual efforts can add up to sturdier crisis management for our digital society.

(Read the editorial in Japanese.)

Author: Editorial Board, The Sankei Shimbun