The Federal Office responsible for cyber security is calling for lessons to be learned from the major IT glitch on July 19. In the future, a faulty update should no longer have such serious consequences.
To ensure that faulty updates do not have such drastic consequences in the future as they did during the major IT failure on July 19, the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) is proposing measures to improve operational stability. In discussions with the software companies Crowdstrike and Microsoft, the BSI has already developed initial measures to prevent similar incidents in the future, according to a statement from the BSI. The company will also work with both companies and manufacturers of comparable software solutions to ensure that the respective operating system can always be started in at least a safe mode, even in the event of serious errors.
The BSI’s long-term goal is also to “design and implement new and resilient components”. These should have the same functionality and protective effect as before, with less far-reaching rights to intervene in the operating systems.
A faulty update for IT security software from Crowdstrike recently caused widespread disruptions in many places around the world. An estimated 8.5 million Windows computers were affected. The consequences were particularly severe in air traffic, but some supermarkets, hospitals and television stations also had problems. Crowdstrike later discovered that the test mechanisms for the software update allowed a faulty file to pass through, which then caused Windows computers to crash. The test systems are now being improved, and updates will be rolled out gradually in the future so that any problems do not immediately affect all customers.
Source: Stern
