INDUSTRY news Microsoft antivirus update causes worldwide outage
to risk should this happen again in future, and reports in this month show a surprising uptick in the use of cash; up to 900,000 households are relying on cash exclusively as the cost of living crisis in the UK continues to bite. Technology is moving faster than contingency planning can keep up with it. The vulnerability of cloud infrastructure to software anomalies, even those originating from security tools designed to protect it, like Crowdstrike, have been adversely affected this time, and it is unlikely to be the last. Such drama has sparked a broader conversation about the risk management strategies and should prompt reinforcement of their systems against similar occurrences. It is a painful example of how interconnected our digital ecosystems have become, and the continuous efforts needed to safeguard against such widespread disruptions.
Microsoft responded without hesitation, coordinating closely with CrowdStrike to diagnose and mitigate the issue. Emergency protocols were activated to restore power and bring affected services back online, but four days later, at the time of writing, there are still miserable people in airport terminals trying to get on a plane for their summer holiday, days later than planned. The root cause of the outage was traced back to a faulty update in the CrowdStrike antivirus software deployed on Microsoft servers, triggering a critical error. While antivirus software was to blame this time, this is not an unprecedented event, much as Microsoft wishes it were. In January last year a network configuration error at their end led to several hours’ worth of downtime impacting millions of businesses, productivity and critical operations worldwide. The ripple effects were felt long after services were officially restored. Both of these events have highlighted the intricate dependencies between cybersecurity measures and operational stability in modern data centres, and how easily it can all go horribly wrong. Advice to carry cash has been circulating, since in a cashless society we are all exposed
On July 18th, 2024, a significant power outage affected multiple Microsoft data centres globally due to an unexpected issue with CrowdStrike antivirus software. The disruption led to widespread service interruptions across various Microsoft cloud services, including Azure, Office 365, and Dynamics 365, impacting millions of users and businesses worldwide and affecting airports and hospitals in particular. An estimated 8.5m computers worldwide have been affected. “We understand the profound impact this has had on everyone. We know our customers, partners and their IT teams are working tirelessly and we’re profoundly grateful,” a red-faced CrowdStrike admitted. “We apologise for the disruption this has created.”
www.microsoft.com
IQGEO Meet Up A Big Success This year’s IQGeo EMEA meetup took place in Cambridge at the start of June. It was a well-attended event with over 100 people from the industry coming together to learn about new and existing technologies and to network with other people in the same space.
SCTE Executive Committee Member and Chair of Membership Committee Laura Baskeyfield attended with Managing Editor Melissa Cogavin. She said, “The mix of presentations provided a good overview of the wide portfolio offered and it was great to see the collaboration with some of IQGeo’s customer base advocating the solutions they are supporting them with. The hands-on area also provided a good opportunity to discuss and demonstrate some of these solutions in person with IQGeo’s partners. A great event, worthwhile checking out!” Steve Tongish, Chief Marketing Officer said, “The IQGeo EMEA Meetup has now been running for several years and we are very pleased to see how it has grown and evolved. While one of the objectives is to update our customers and partners on the latest IQGeo software, we approach it very much as a fibre industry event. For example, this year we had four exceptional real-world case studies and a large ecosystem of technology and service partners. Our vision for the Meetup is to create and exciting educational event that helps people establish strategic business relationships for the success of the entire fibre broadband industry.”
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Volume 46 No.3 September 2024
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