On July 19, 2024, a technological catastrophe—a global IT meltdown—occurred. This event has been called the biggest IT failure in history. Millions of computers using Microsoft operating systems that relied on CrowdStrike for cybersecurity crashed, which caused hundreds of flights around the world to be canceled or delay, hospitals had to reschedule operations, broadcasts could not be aired, and businesses couldn’t open.
After various theories on the cause of the crash, including putting blame on Microsoft, it turned out that the crash was due to a faulty software update by CrowdStrike that’s used in Microsoft’s cloud service. If you think about it, it’s surprising there haven’t been more massive IT meltdowns. There’ve been some disruptions from ransomware attacks, but these are business-by-business events. For me, the IT meltdown is a good reminder to employ sound business practices that can avoid catastrophes and help you deal with them when they occur.
Lesson: Backup baby!
If you’ve ever experienced a computer crash (I have), you know how disastrous it can be. You want to be able to recover your data quickly and easily. This means having done backups that you can retrieve.
Before you need to do it, consider learning restore-from-backup procedures so you can deploy them if your computer crashes. Or have IT expects you can call upon to do this for you.
Lesson: Get your team ready for anything
How will your company respond if there’s a serious IT issue that temporarily knocks out computer/internet capabilities? Consider:
- How you will inform employees?
- What you will tell customers?
- How will you manage operations?
Lesson: Prepare your smartphone for backup work
Think about how your smartphone can be used as your “operating system” if your computer is down. Does it have all the contact information you need? Are there apps that will function independently from your computer?
Lesson: Don’t be fooled by size
CrowdStrike is the number one security company with over 3,500 customers representing one in four businesses (mostly large ones). Just because a business is the leader in its field doesn’t guarantee performance or that you’re safe from disaster. A small business may be better off working with other businesses that are more modest in size and can respond with a personal touch.
Lesson: Always have a plan B (C, D, etc.)
Disruptions happen, and you have to be prepared to handle anything. Some ideas:
- Think no-tech. SkyNews Daily, a partner network of the BBC, said that during the CrowdStrike disaster, they used handwritten scripts and some other non-tech solutions to get on the air.
- Pad your travel schedule. Delta reported that more than 2,500 flights were canceled and more than 8,300 flights were delayed because of the CrowdStrike catastrophe. If your travel plans were disrupted because of this event, you know how upsetting it was. If you travel for business, it’s always a good idea to pad the time for departure and arrival in terms of extra days (not merely hours). Disruption in travel may be due not only to IT failures, but also weather and labor issues.
- Keep cash on hand. If electronic payments cannot be processed, cash comes in handy.
Final thought
I’m no tech expert; I rely on outside IT people for their help and guidance. I just think that the CrowdStrike catastrophe isn’t the last one we’ll experience and it’s a good heads up to be prepared for the future. One word that keeps popping up in preparedness is redundancy. If one thing fails, you have back up.
For additional resources regarding cybersecurity and small business you can look here on this blog.
