- Ahmed Al Sharif has worked in the field of software engineering and consumer electronics for decades.
- The CTO found himself caught up in the travel chaos caused by the outage early on July 19.
- He said CrowdStrike broke a fundamental rule for developers, and the consequences were shocking.
This article is based on a transmitted conversation…
I started my career in technology nearly two decades ago as a software engineer. I was a startup founder and worked at large companies like EA and Meta.
On Friday, July 19, I was scheduled to fly from Barcelona International Airport to London Heathrow Airport on a business trip at 11am local time.
I was surprised when I arrived and found that the flights were closed. I was also surprised to learn that there had been major incidents. Crashes on multiple Windows-based systems At the airport. It took some research to figure out it was a global event.
Even as an engineer, the outage was strange. I couldn’t believe that there was such a reliance on a single third-party program that, if updated irresponsibly, could cause such a mess.
I realized the IT outage happened after I arrived to a chaotic situation at the airport.
I left for the airport at 8 a.m. Before I got there, there were some early signs that something was wrong.
I couldn’t log into my online banking app, and things were a little slow when I logged into my Outlook-based email, but I attributed that to the hotel WiFi.
When I arrived at the airport around 8:20 a.m., it was packed. The lines were endless. Many of the check-in desks were showing blue screens, and no one was getting screened. I knew something bigger was going on.
I couldn’t figure out where I should stand in line, and when I asked an airport advisor, he told me there was no point in standing in line now because there was a glitch in the ticketing, booking and reservation systems.
I asked if our airport was the only one affected, and they told me it happens everywhere.
And here began the frantic search on Google. And I realized that The problem was with CrowdStrike.This was happening worldwide.
The unrest at the airport continued throughout the day.
Throughout the day, baggage drop machines, vending machines, and most of the airport’s display boards were not working.
Check-in was done manually. Before I could get a handwritten paper ticket, I had to prove my booking for that day’s flight by showing the staff emails as proof of payment. Anyone with checked baggage had to bring it to the gate, and the airport staff would manually toss it into the hold.
of mine The flight is delayed. I was delayed for six hours, and was still at the airport at the time of speaking. It was annoying and inconvenient, but fortunately the company covers my travel, and they understand that the situation is out of my control.
I’ve spoken to people who have been waiting at the airport for 11 hours, and they seem very frustrated.
I was surprised to learn of CrowdStrike’s dominance on Microsoft devices.
During the delay, I was busy trying to understand the situation better. It’s interesting and reveals that we have taken for granted how interconnected our world is and how dependent we are on each other.
I was surprised to learn that the cascading failure was due to an update that CrowdStrike pushed out early Friday morning.
CrowdStrike is popular in Cybersecurity IndustryBut until today, I don’t think anyone was aware of its dominance as a platform on Windows. It never occurred to me that a third-party solution could cause so much damage to Windows computers.
One of the basic rules of Software development The reason for this is that you don’t usually want to roll out a solution later in the week or on Friday. You’ll have less support to try to fix any issues, and the week will be over.
It seems like some basic rules have been broken. However, CrowdStrike probably has evidence to suggest that this is a freak accident, so I don’t think it’s fair to point fingers too much.
I’ve seen people comment on this position about diversity and companies not relying on just one or two providers. I don’t think that’s realistic.
Windows is the most widely used operating system. In any free market economy, the best performing and most convenient product will dominate the market.
We need a much more rigorous review and understanding of the tools we use on critical infrastructure. The impact here was very significant because it affected infrastructure like airports, railway stations, hospitals. It will cost the economy a lot.
If there had been more due diligence or even government regulation, I don’t think this would have happened.
I expect that after this, government authorities will expect widely used platforms like CrowdStrike to notify them before pushing changes like this.
Technology will shape our future, so we need to think about how we regulate it.
We haven’t yet seen the full impact this outage will have, but it certainly puts into perspective how the little devices we keep in our pockets dictate the rhythms of our lives.
I don’t think anyone really understood the true scope and presence of CrowdStrike before today.
I still see our future as increasingly automated. We’re likely to see more situations like this, especially as our society moves toward greater automation. I still think technology is a good thing, but it does make me want to mail my bills every now and then.
It usually takes a horizon event like this to learn lessons from it. I don’t think technology is inherently good or bad; it’s how it’s used and regulated.
