The Microsoft Windows crash that happened globally exposed the flaws of centralised systems. Is it time to turn to decentralised IT infrastructures instead?
Windows operating system (OS) users are experiencing widespread system failure, with their systems displaying the “Blue Screen of Death” error. While the error is usually a standalone issue, it has affected computers globally, including those in corporate offices, financial institutions, retail, telecommunications, and transportation hubs.
Countries experiencing the disruptions so far include the United States, Australia, Japan, and India. According to Australian media The Conversation, the failure has affected organisations across the Australian continent, with websites of the Commonwealth Bank, Telstra, the ABC, and many others going down.
Timeline of Events
- Reports of the Microsoft Windows crash began streaming in on the afternoon of 19 July, after complaints of users being unable to conduct bank transactions were posted online.
- Flight grounding and cancellations were being reported in the United States, Australia, Japan, and India.
- Several Indian brokerage firms began reporting technical difficulties with their operations.
- Microsoft states that a recent CrowdStrike update has led to the global crash. CrowdStrike Falcon is responsible for Windows’ cybersecurity solutions such as endpoint protection, detection and response, threat intelligence, incident response, Windows security features, and security updates and patches.
Current Updates
CrowdStrike’s CEO, George Kurtz, has tweeted that they are “actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts”, and that the issue has been identified, with a fix being deployed.
“The outage affecting computer systems worldwide is severe. It is affecting critical systems, such as those in hospitals, airports, financial institutions and more. For instance, patients aren’t able to get medications in the hospital setting.” said Satnam Narang, senior staff research engineer at Tenable.
“While the issue is associated with Windows systems, it does not appear to be an issue with Microsoft Windows, but rather, security software installed on millions of Windows computers worldwide. Because this is a security software, it requires a higher level of privileges to the underlying operating system, so a bad or faulty security update can result in a catastrophic impact. This event is unprecedented and the ramifications of it are still developing.”
Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, did not tweet about the situation at the time of publishing.
Decentralised Systems are Better
The global Microsoft Windows crash reminds us of the global economy’s reliance on digital technology to make things run like clockwork on a daily basis. While such outages only occur once in a blue moon, it exposes the inherent danger of relying on a centralised operating system to move the economy. In doing so, a simple task such as a software update has led to a severe butterfly effect of cascading failures that has affected everything from financial transactions to critical public services.
Decentralised systems could instead offer a more resilient alternative to the current information technology infrastructure. Distributing control and processing across multiple independent systems and nodes reduces the likelihood of a single point of failure causing widespread disruption. If one node or component experiences issues, other nodes will continue to operate. This distributed architecture enhances the reliability and availability of the system, making it less susceptible to catastrophic failures.
Do We Need Blockchains When Implementing Decentralised Systems?
As proponents of blockchain systems, we have to ask the following question: Do we need to implement blockchain systems or networks? The answer is a clear “No”.
Let’s recap what blockchains are. Decentralised blockchains are digital ledgers that record transactions across multiple computers. They are distributed networks without a central authority, meaning no single entity controls the system.
Their key features are:
- Decentralisation: No single point of control.
- Security: Cryptography ensures data integrity and prevents tampering.
- Transparency: All transactions are visible and verifiable.
- Immutability: Once data is recorded, it cannot be altered.
While blockchains are a prominent example of decentralised systems, it is important to note that they’re not synonymous. A decentralised system is a broader architecture where computation and processing power are distributed across multiple nodes.
Blockchains, on the other hand, are databases that use cryptography to secure and verify transactions. At its current level of development, blockchains are not a feasible concept that can be utilised on a global scale. Nevertheless, its resilience against potential shutdowns and attacks highlights how a decentralised architecture could work better than a centralised one.
It is Time to Rethink the Global IT Framework
Matthew Hardman, Chief Technology Officer of Hitachi Vantara, APAC, said, “While the cause was not a cyberattack, this is a stark reminder of the vulnerability of our interconnected digital world, and shows that organisations are not necessarily ready for an outage on core business processes. This highlights the importance of data protection and cyber resiliency to ensure quick recovery and business continuity.”
When a simple update error is able to bring multiple industries to their knees, it is time to explore how we can mitigate such risks in the future. We need such systems to remain independently operational, and decentralisation emerges as a promising approach.
By distributing control across multiple independent entities, decentralised systems would be more resilient against similar failures in the future, while preventing another wave of blue screens in future.
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