Why We Should Not Fear Global Tech Outages

Aug 21, 2024 | News

By: Ben McEachen

On July 18, 2024, the world, almost, stopped.

Everything from airports to media companies and local businesses were ground to a halt by a software update released by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.

Notably causing shutdowns with Microsoft operating systems, the flawed update revealed what we already know.

We are enormously reliant upon interconnected digital systems. Our personal and professional lives are increasingly built upon online networks.

So, do we need to live in fear of more outages?

“I don’t think we need more fear, necessarily, but I do think we should expect [more outages],” says Adrian Tam.

Adrian is Regional Manager (Oceania) for FaithTech, a global network of Christians in the technology space seeking to glorify God through innovation and implementation.

“The reality is these outages happen all the time.”

Reportedly, the scale of the CrowdStrike/Microsoft outage was the largest ever of its kind.

But Adrian said we should acknowledge smaller outages are common.

“It does point to the deeper question of not just what do you put your hope in, but what do you put your ultimate hope in.”

Instead of living in fear of crashes or cyberterrorism, Adrian recommended we learn a different lesson.

“It does point to the deeper question of not just what do you put your hope in, but what do you put your ultimate hope in,” Adrian said. “We can place some level of hope in lots “of things around us. Material things, digital things, virtual things.

But is there something in your life that you can place hope in and know that it will never fail or disappoint you?”