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The next TNN has been released and is ‘The Future of…AGENTIC AI’ with Amazon's Sanjeev Prabhakar Badri. August 15th, 8am, London. We’re talking about trillion dollar industries… Tickets are limited, book here / TBD+ members go free, join here.

Well I did say normal service resumes next week…’I hope’. An extremely tumultuous 72 hours as the world creaks back after multiple systems ground to a halt because a bad update was pushed by CrowdStrike, a cyber security firm that Microsoft devices relied on. Cue the dreaded blue screen of death on tills, airline screens, hospitals, banks, live news and more. Microsoft has confirmed the update affected 8.5M Windows devices, or less than 1% of all Windows machines. The question many are asking is how such a single point of failure could happen, and what we are going to do anything in the future to ensure it can’t happen again?

The answer is, it was inevitable, but there are a few things that can be done; improved testing, phased rollouts, and redundancy systems will address symptoms but these don’t address root causes. We need a shift towards holistic resilience, designing systems that adapt, self-heal, and maintain functionality during disruptions. Sound like AI? You bet. Integrating complex systems theory and resilient engineering into cybersecurity isn’t necessary it’s going to be critical. Dr. Keri Pearlson, Executive Director of the Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan perhaps says it best, “…it’s impossible to be completely protected from every vulnerability. That’s because the good guys must protect against every possible vulnerability, while the bad guys only need one small crack in a company’s armor to get in.”

The key here is to embracing decentralisation and diverse security solutions to mitigate single points of failure, similar to how biodiversity enhances ecosystem resilience. A variety of species perform overlapping roles, ensuring that if one species is affected by a disturbance, others can step in to maintain the ecosystem's functions. The same is true with cybersecurity, should one security solution fails, others can continue to protect the infrastructure, maintaining overall stability and security. A simple analogy, but one that works. Of course, there’s always the option to turn the big five into the big fifteen too, but big tech doesn’t seem to think that’s the right solution...

The CrowdStrike outage is not just a technical failure; it is a stark reflection of the deeper systemic issues within our digital infrastructure and cybersecurity models. The incident invites, although we haven’t seen anyone of note coming out yet saying anything to this end, a broader examination of how interconnected and dependent our global systems (another way of saying big tech) have become, and it raises critical questions about the future of cybersecurity and digital resilience. You could go so far as to say independence; a key reason why Congress, the EU and governements around are so concerned with big tech monopolies that doesn’t usually get talked about.

__ DO __ Hope for better. There’s always hope, but work for better too. Other things you can do is spread your information around a bit like people do with important photos and upload them to multiple services in case the worst happens. For businesses, it’s time to go back to basics and dust off your disaster strategies. // __ DON’T __ Focus on the fix. By thinking beyond immediate technical fixes and addressing the underlying systemic issues, we can need to build a more resilient, adaptable, and secure digital infrastructure. Doing so requires a concerted effort from all stakeholders—governments, private sector, academia, and the public—to rethink cybersecurity paradigms, enhance regulatory frameworks, and foster a culture of resilience. Just think, there were no bad actors here, and the team knew where to look. A hack often catches companies completely unaware, so the damage can be bigger and take longer to find let alone correct. It’s not ever going to be easy, but it’s not impossible. Only through comprehensive and collaborative efforts are we ever going to get different outcomes to similar (or larger) issues that we’ll undoubtedly face in the future.

Cigarette butts are the second most common undisposed-of litter on Earth, and this quardoped robo-dog isn’t happy… /3 mins

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REMINDER: The TNN AM is on August 15th and the theme is THE FUTURE OF…AGENTIC AI with Amazon!  > Book Tickets

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