OPINION: The Crowdstrike warning

“A defective update to an obscure piece of security software knocked out security systems around the globe Friday, causing widespread disruptions to travel, medical care and businesses of all stripes while revealing in stunning fashion the fragility of a world economy on shared technology.”

That lead sentence from a Washington Post story summarizes the danger we face from potential and actual enemies. If an unintended software glitch can produce such havoc, how much more damage, danger and destruction could totalitarian states like Iran, North Korea, Russia and China do should they choose to do so?

Most flights were grounded because of the software glitch. Surgeries were delayed. Bank ATMs and other services were affected. Normalcy seemed to be restored rather quickly (except for Delta Airlines, which continues to have problems days after the incident) but this should be a sign and a warning of potentially worse things to come if we are unprepared. This was supposedly an accident. But what if it, or something worse, had been deliberate?

Cyber attacks from space are potential threats as China and Russia ramp up their space programs. They are not coming “in peace for all mankind” as the plaque left on the moon by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin 50 years ago stated.

Three months ago, FBI Director Christopher Wray called the threat “incredibly serious,” but he also claims many successes combating especially cyber threats involving the Chinese military. Speaking at an FBI and University of Kansas Cyber security conference in April, Director Wray added that the threat from cyber hackers is “complex, persistent, and severe. … They’re more pervasive, hit a wider array of victims, and carry the potential for greater damage than ever before.”

According to Forbes magazine “...spending on efforts to combat the damage caused by cybercrime is expected to increase by 15 percent per year over the next two years, reaching $10.5 trillion annually by 2025.” Computer giant IBM reports that “for 2023, the United States continues to have the highest cost of a data breach at $5.09 million.”

Government’s answer to everything seems to be increased spending, but perhaps other ways might be more effective. What they might be is not for a person whose worst subject in school was math, but greater minds might have the answer and let’s hope they come up with one or more very quickly.

The Center for Security and International Studies (CSIS) has compiled a timeline of what it calls “significant cyber incidents since 2006 (focusing) on cyber attacks on government agencies, defense and high tech companies, or economic crimes with losses of more than a million dollars.” There have been dozens of them worldwide in just the last two years.

During the Cold War, American defense capabilities were measured in visible ICBMs. Cyber attacks are mostly invisible and far more sophisticated until the damage they cause is too late to reverse.

This column is being written on a text app because my Microsoft Word has been wiped out – temporarily, I hope. A minor concern, but a personal impact of the CrowdStrike problem.

During the Cold War, decision-makers who could order a nuclear attack were supposedly few in number. Not so with cyber attackers, who could be an agent of an enemy state or a kid locked in his bedroom with a laptop.

That last scenario was the plot in a 1983 movie called “War Games,” in which a young man finds a back door into a military central computer. Reality becomes confused with playing a video game, threatening World War III.

Forty-one years later, that work of fiction has become all too real. Hackers — be they from a government or in a basement — are not coming in peace for all mankind. We have been warned.

Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist. Look for his latest book, “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” (HumanixBooks).

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