Digital Defects

Bu Gordon Hopkins As I write these words on my 972 Olympia SG3 manual typewriter, business at banks, airlines and many other computer-dependent industries has ground to a halt due to what news outlets are calling a “Global IT Outage.” Overnight, chaos reigned. The Phoenix Police Department's 911 service only just came back online this morning. News media are broadcasting scenes of people sleeping on airport floors. It is a familiar image that alerts the public when something has gone seriously wrong, though it usually indicates a war or natural disaster, not that a computer is down. Even here in Jefferson County, the DMV wasn't able to do business-as-usual earlier this week because of an outage. I have no idea if it is related to the “Global IT Outage.” I only know that it is another example of how dependent we have become on a system that, a few short decades ago, didn't even exist.This is one of the reasons that world fears a possible cyberattack, a word that also did not exist a few short decades ago. If you can successfully disrupt computers, you can bring the world to its knees. The world would stop spinning on its axis. The truly disturbing part of this particular incident is that it apparently has nothing to do with any cyberattack or other malicious act. Instead, according to a statement released by Crowstrike, a cybersecurity firm, “CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.” “Defect.” Is there a more terrifying word in the English language? Scarier than “nightmare.” Scarier than “abominable.” Scarier than “alimony.” Even scarier than “IRS.” Which, I know, technically isn't a word but an acronyms but it is still the scariest thing I could think of.When the airplane you are flying in has a defect, you end up getting sucked out somewhere over Coshocton. I realize this is not the most original observation, but the more dependent we become on something, anything, the harder it is to survive if that something is taken away from us. My cats have become dependent on me to crack open a can of cat food and spoon it into a bowl for them. If I suddenly disappeared, do you think those fat, lazy fuzzballs could survive on their own, hunting mice in a field? Cuz’ I don't. Anyway, I opted to write this column on a manual typewriter as an admittedly hollow act of rebellion. If the computers vanish tomorrow and never return, I'll be just as lost as everyone.

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