SAN FRANCISCO — “Move fast and break things” is a tech mantra popularized by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg 20 years ago that was meant to be a rallying cry for game-changing innovation. But now it seems more like a lament for a society built on digital foundations too fragile to withstand faulty software programs that were meant to protect computers, not crash them.
The global technology disruption caused by a faulty update installed by cybersecurity specialist CrowdStrike on computers running Microsoft's flagship Windows software earlier this month was so severe that some affected companies, including Delta Airlines, are still working to recover days later.
It's a revealing moment that illustrates the digital pitfalls of a culture where the magic of technology is taken for granted until it collapses into a horror show that exposes our ignorance and vulnerability.
“We are totally dependent on systems that we don't even know exist until they break,” says Silicon Valley forecaster and historian Paul Saffo. “We've become a bit like that Blanche DuBois scene in 'A Streetcar Named Desire,' where she says, 'I've always depended on the kindness of others.'”
The dangers of a world connected by “gum and shoelaces”
Dependence and extreme vulnerability begin with the interconnections that link our computers, phones, and other devices. While interconnectivity usually makes life easier and more convenient, it also means that outages, whether caused by mistake like Crowdstrike or malicious intent by hackers, can have much wider repercussions.
“Maybe it's time to rethink how the internet works and ask why it works the way it does, because so many things are held together by gum or shoelaces,” said Gregory Falco, an assistant professor of engineering at Cornell University.
Computer and mobile phone screens in New York show the CrowdStrike logo and a Spirit Airlines webpage with a travel advisory about a third-party outage affecting its reservation system, Friday, July 19, 2024. Credit: AP/Richard Drew
These risks are compounded by the tightening control of a group of companies commonly known as “Big Tech”: Microsoft, which develops the software that runs most of the world's computers, Apple and Google, which develop the software that runs almost all of the world's smartphones, Amazon, which controls the data centers that run websites (another key service offered by Microsoft and Google in addition to being an e-commerce marketplace), and MetaPlatforms, the social networking hub that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Microsoft is a highly centralized empire with some pathways open to a network of smaller companies like CrowdStrike, whose $3 billion in annual sales is a fraction of Microsoft's roughly $250 billion in sales.The major companies still tend to prioritize profit over a commitment to quality, said Isak Nti-Assar, co-director of the Cybersecurity and Global Policy Program at Indiana University.
“We've built a cult of innovation, a system that says, 'Let's get the technology into people's hands as quickly as possible, and if we find there's a problem, we'll fix it,'” Nti Asar said. “We should move slower and demand better technology instead of bowing to these feudal overlords.”
How on earth did we get here?
Passengers wait at check-in counters at Berlin-Brandenburg Airport in Schonefeld, Germany, Friday, July 19, 2024. A widespread technical outage disrupted flights, banks, media and businesses around the world. Photo by AP/Christoph Soeder
But is this situation Big Tech's fault, or has 21st century society, with consumers eagerly buying the next shiny device while gleefully posting photos online and seemingly inept lawmakers choosing to impose safeguards, allowed us to get to this point without even realizing it?
“Everybody wants to point the finger at other people,” Saffo said, “but I think it's better to look inward.”
If digital evolution seems to be heading in the wrong direction, should we change course, or is it even possible when some credit card companies now charge customers a fee if they want their monthly bills delivered through the U.S. Postal Service, a service that is so slow it has become known as “snail mail”?
Remaining stuck in another era worked well for Southwest Airlines during the Crowdstrike debacle: The airline's systems run on Windows software from the 1990s. It's such outdated technology that Southwest doesn't rely on Crowdstrike for security. But that sword has another, less attractive blade: playing like a Luddite has hobbled Southwest during the 2022 holiday travel season, when thousands of flights were canceled because the airline's technology couldn't properly adjust crew schedules.
But it's becoming increasingly difficult to go back to the analog and early digital days of 30 or 40 years ago, when more work was done by hand and more records were handled by pen and paper. Instead, the technology seems destined to become even more pervasive, now that artificial intelligence is poised to automate more tasks. This could include writing code for software updates that are checked by a computer. That code is then monitored by another computer to make sure it doesn't malfunction.
But that doesn't mean families can't fall back on old-fashioned methods as a backup if technology fails, says Matt Mittelstead, a research associate at the Marketas Center at George Mason University. “There's a growing realization that what we once scoffed at, like writing passwords on Post-it notes, isn't necessarily the worst idea.”
At this point, experts believe, both governments and the private sector need to spend more time mapping the digital ecosystem to better understand the system's weaknesses. Otherwise, society as a whole may be navigating a digital minefield — blindfolded. “We don't know anything about the environment we're currently operating in, other than that it's a whole bunch of time bombs,” Mittelstette says.
