Microsoft’s shutting down led to a lot of mishaps. It wasnât just a bunch of tech guys holding their heads in frustration at the sad emoticon on their computer monitors but the whole globe and its workings impacted at large by the Blue Screen Of Death. Airlines, healthcare, finance, and just any sector that requires Microsoft technology in its operations were affected by the crash. This begs the question: does technology serve us or trap us into doing its bidding instead?
To outline it all: In July 2024, Microsoft experienced a widespread outage affecting multiple services, including Outlook, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and Azure. This lasted for several hours, beginning in the early morning till the end workday, disrupting operations for millions of users globally. There was a failure in Microsoftâs cloud services, preventing users from logging into their accounts and accessing essential applications. There were psychological effects on the users such as employees panicking over their deadlines because of their work being digitized. This crash highlighted the fragility of data infrastructures, making users more aware of their dependence on technology. Many began questioning the reliability of cloud services and considered the potential consequences of such outages in the future. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud also drew attention to this issue, concerned, stating âtechnological dependence had its drawbacksâ after his own flight from Delhi to Madurai was nearly cancelled due to it.
However, all of the accountability falls on CrowdStrike
So, when the CEO of CrowdStrike was interviewed on how a single technical update caused the entire system to shut down, he started stammering and had to take a gulp of water before forming a coherent sentence. Really makes one question the hands in which such vast technological system is concentrated in, a system which could make or break entire mechanisms that the world relies on, in mere seconds.
âCrowdStrike is a cybersecurity software firm that provides advances security to users and businesses. As per India Today, the companyâs software comes integrated with Windows.â
– First Post
And then recent news revealed that after the update happened, it was actually some sort of cyber attack that had triggered the Microsoft outage, despite the protection it had. If a tech giant can be susceptible to this, what about the personal privacy in our phones especially when so much of our data is in it?
With AI increasingly taking over our lives too, it isnât far-fetched to think what more adverse effects it would have in the near future. Flying cars are cool and still much anticipated even but Iâm also talking about something way more dangerous that was also predicted in the sci-fi books and movies; yes, you guessed it: robotic apocalypse. After the outage, several conspiracy theories surfaced, with one anonymous user on social media commenting that World War 3 would mostly be a cyber war and even warning about âcyber attacks with covid-like characteristicsâ.
Well, not everything can be in the dark, right? If tech catches up as fast as that, we can also soon expect to become a half cyborg, half human which would mean immortality. And SUPERPOWERS? But again, half cyborg means a lot of tools, microchips, machinery, etc involved that would be inserted inside our bodies, and well, who will regulate that? The government? Ah, I can already feel the tension in the air just by the mention of that. From human rights that could be violated through loopholes in authority, to even risking the autonomy of our own bodies if they are half controlled by tech, thereâs a lot to lose.
From the technology which started as something to make our work easier and connect with each other, itâs ironically becoming the opposite. We are procrastinating and distancing ourselves from each other. But really, who would put in the effort to make friends and carry the relationship anymore which requires so much patience when instead character AI is 24/7 ready to listen to our rants, comfort us, never fight, and guarantee to never leave us, unlike humans? Is AI an eligible bachelor and a better partner than real people? (Side eye to Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya where a guy falls for a robot and of course, Rajnikanth sir in Robot)
However, coming back to Microsoft for now, grievances were raised and addressed by experts through highlights:
â âDonât put all your IT eggs in one basket; learning from global IT outage.â Companies should use a multi-cloud strategy: distributing their IT infrastructure across multiple cloud service providers. This way, if one provider goes down, the others can continue to support critical operations.â
– Live Mint
These measures thus aim for alternative backup and contingency plans for mitigating digital disasters.
In conclusion, it is also imperative to balance virtual and real life more now than ever before especially when both are rapidly becoming entangled with each other. Technology is smart but we are smarter as we created it, and we are the ones who give it power.
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