Canaries in coal mines and normal accidents: The CrowdStrike outage and its lessons for critical infrastructure-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

Canaries in coal mines and normal accidents: The CrowdStrike outage and its lessons for critical infrastructure

Published:2024-09-02 Issue: Volume: Page:
ISSN:2693-3101
Container-title:Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy
language:en
Short-container-title:Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy

Author:

Morris John C.¹^ORCID,Mayer Martin K.²

Affiliation:

1. Department of Political Science Auburn University Auburn Alabama USA

2. Department of Political Science and Public Administration University of North Carolina at Pembroke Pembroke North Carolina USA

Abstract

AbstractThe service outage caused by a faulty CrowdStrike software update in July 2024 triggered a widespread disruption in services and activities worldwide, ranging from airline operations, to credit card transaction processing, emergency and cellular telephone operations, and technical issues for more than 8 million Microsoft Windows users. The outage was not the result of a deliberate attempt to disrupt systems, but rather of what Charles Perrow has termed a “normal accident.” This article explores the implications of technological complexity for critical infrastructure and offers ideas for a research agenda to better understand resilience in tightly coupled, critical infrastructure systems.

Publisher

Wiley

Link

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jci3.12021

Reference17 articles.

1. Alspach Kyle2024. “5 Things to Know on the CrowdStrike‐Microsoft Outage.” CRN July 19.http://www.crn.com/news/security/2024/5-things-to-know-on-the…47U9rFMKXZcqzCO1qhIf_K0Yfa78utOh6UyCPPKWjhuQc7_BXOYFboG0YDjUw

2. U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).2024.CrowdStrike Chaos Highlights Key Cyber Vulnerabilities With Software Updates.https://www.gao.gov/blog/crowdstrike-chaos-highlights-key-cyber-vulnerabilities-software-updates

3. Conger Kate andMosesClaire. 2024. “What Is CrowdStrike.” New York Times July 19.https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/19/business/what-is-crowdstrike.html?searchResultPosition=1

4. Fung Brian.2024. “We Finally Know What Caused the Global Tech Outage—And How Much It Cost.” CNN.com July 24.https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/24/tech/crowdstrike-outage-cost-cause/index.html

5. Alspach Kyle. 2024b. “The CrowdStrike‐Microsoft Outage Is Likely to Curtail Auto‐Updates. This May Not be a Good Thing.” CRN July 24.https://www.crn.com/news/security/2024/the-crowdstrike-microsoft…sPxZiKnK8no63_xYoWunirF7prK1VGLZ7oda4KIBB49rjM5y9jK2XRrCYhJUKjng