Catastrophic computer failures caused by a company’s software update have once again exposed the dangers of global technological dependence on a handful of players, experts warned on Friday.

A flawed update from little-known security company CrowdStrike brought airlines, television networks and countless other aspects of daily life to a standstill.

The outages affected companies or individuals using CrowdStrike on the Microsoft Windows platform: when they applied the update, the incompatible software put the computers into a frozen state known as the “Blue Screen of Death.”

“CrowdStrike is a household name today, but not in a good way, and it will take some time for that trend to stabilize,” said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities.

The collapse quickly sparked discussions about the power of internet giants over an increasingly digitalized global economy in which more activity now takes place in the computer “cloud” or on a few apps or platforms.

– Just a taste –

When these platforms are flawed – or targeted – the world seems to collapse.

In recent months, entire healthcare systems and industries have been brought to a standstill after hackers breached their systems, leaving consumers baffled and businesses perplexed.

“I think we’re just getting a taste of the potential impact of the real dependence of the financial sector and sectors of the entire economy on a handful of cloud companies and other key systems,” Rohit Chopra, director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told CNBC.

“There are only a handful of large cloud companies where a large part of the economy is currently at a standstill.”

There has been a major shift around the world towards cloud computing, where companies use servers offered by major technology giants for their computing needs instead of using their own infrastructure.

Amazon is the global leader with its company AWS, followed by Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

Friday’s outage was caused by a faulty software update provided to Microsoft Windows users by CrowdStrike, a company that specializes in cybersecurity for cloud-based businesses.

“We deeply regret the impact we have caused to customers, travelers and everyone affected,” CrowdStrike CEO Kurtz said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show.

Microsoft blamed CrowdStrike for the problems, but industry insiders warned that the problem was that the digital world was entrusted to only a few key companies.

“There will continue to be problems for systems or companies that are completely dependent on Microsoft – this problem of concentration risk,” Michael Daniel, former White House cybersecurity coordinator and current head of the Cyber ​​​​Threat Alliance, told AFP.

“How do you weigh the benefits of everyone using the same operating system against the associated concentration risk?”

Callie Guenther, senior manager of cyber threat research at Critical Start, warned that the impact of system outages and vulnerabilities would be amplified by the shift toward larger players.

A mistake like the one made by CrowdStrike on Friday endangers the smooth functioning of society worldwide, she said.

– No emergency plan –

Andrius Minkevicius, co-founder of cybersecurity firm Cyber ​​Upgrade, says companies need to fight the complacency that often comes with outsourcing technology to large vendors.

“Today we see an example of those who relied primarily on the vendor’s cyber protection without additional contingency plans and are now suffering reputational and financial damage,” he said.

Experts warn that this incident is likely to attract the attention of regulators and authorities.

“CrowdStrike will probably have to bring in some outside people to investigate how this happened,” said Daniel of the Cyber ​​​​Threat Alliance.

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