Cotswold
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- Dec 31, 2020
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The CROWDSTRIKE issue started in jokes, which was maybe not the best place.
I just wonder how much of that was written by AI and if there is too much automatic reliance on its superiority. Why was it not more thoroughly tested? Another concern to me would be the issue that Gasman brought up, Xero an accounting system that stopped working. How would they be if after restarting and some data was lost? Would they be able to verify their accounts to check that? Could they step back? Did they have a backup before the issue?
When I was a software consultant I would always advise against a company selling their invoices to improve cash flow. Basically because once they do, they lose control of their sales ledger.
Are there accounting systems out there maybe without a plan B? If that system went down for three months would companies using it survive? Could they lose all access to their accounts and how do they control their accounts and cash flow in the meantime? If they don't send statements out they will not get paid. Apart from airlines many others fell over yesterday, insurance being another. So what if you cannot get any bank or insurance information for a week or so. Not a good situation to be in. It is a fact that hardly any business owners and boards of directors have even the faintest idea how any of their software works. The software that their company totally relies upon. Not a clue. I have actually been in several companies who had been sold some supadupa backup and restore system, which had never actually been fully live tested. "we can't afford the downtime to do it but it will be fine!"
Can it be the case that too much faith is being placed on some systems that could be prone to failure, or attack? Too many rely on their spreadsheets but every spreadsheet I've been asked to check has had errors. Albeit some with small errors but errors nonetheless. Mainly because in most cases they are produced by managers, or minions with little knowledge of systems, procedure and logic. A bunch of software apprentices basically. No doubt there will be some countries and propeller-heads all over the World encouraged by the CrowdStrike event who will now be attempting to create something similar.
If I was in business I certainly wouldn't want to be reliant on the systems that Xero and insurance companies rely on. Are you basically reliant on third parties that your software supplier uses? What could those software companies do if their supplier fails? Hopefully all these questions have been addressed.
I just wonder how much of that was written by AI and if there is too much automatic reliance on its superiority. Why was it not more thoroughly tested? Another concern to me would be the issue that Gasman brought up, Xero an accounting system that stopped working. How would they be if after restarting and some data was lost? Would they be able to verify their accounts to check that? Could they step back? Did they have a backup before the issue?
When I was a software consultant I would always advise against a company selling their invoices to improve cash flow. Basically because once they do, they lose control of their sales ledger.
Are there accounting systems out there maybe without a plan B? If that system went down for three months would companies using it survive? Could they lose all access to their accounts and how do they control their accounts and cash flow in the meantime? If they don't send statements out they will not get paid. Apart from airlines many others fell over yesterday, insurance being another. So what if you cannot get any bank or insurance information for a week or so. Not a good situation to be in. It is a fact that hardly any business owners and boards of directors have even the faintest idea how any of their software works. The software that their company totally relies upon. Not a clue. I have actually been in several companies who had been sold some supadupa backup and restore system, which had never actually been fully live tested. "we can't afford the downtime to do it but it will be fine!"
Can it be the case that too much faith is being placed on some systems that could be prone to failure, or attack? Too many rely on their spreadsheets but every spreadsheet I've been asked to check has had errors. Albeit some with small errors but errors nonetheless. Mainly because in most cases they are produced by managers, or minions with little knowledge of systems, procedure and logic. A bunch of software apprentices basically. No doubt there will be some countries and propeller-heads all over the World encouraged by the CrowdStrike event who will now be attempting to create something similar.
If I was in business I certainly wouldn't want to be reliant on the systems that Xero and insurance companies rely on. Are you basically reliant on third parties that your software supplier uses? What could those software companies do if their supplier fails? Hopefully all these questions have been addressed.
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