On July 19th, CrowdStrike (a cybersecurity platform provider) released an update that caused crashes on 8.5 million Microsoft Windows PCs and servers. Instead of starting up, computers showed 'blue screens of death,' closing ports, preventing consumers from using ATMs, and delaying medical procedures.1'A massive tech outage is causing worldwide disruptions. Here's what we know,' AP, July 19, 2024. While CrowdStrike released a fix the same day, enterprises had to undertake an arduous process of manually rebooting tens of thousands of servers and PCs in safe mode and deleting files associated with the faulty update before installing a fix. This was not a cyberattack, nor is it unique. There have been several recent, widespread software outages that created havoc across entire value chains, like this year's ransomware attacks that prevented auto dealers from doing business and healthcare providers from receiving payments, or the unstable, aged systems that stranded holiday travelers a...
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