Cybersecurity expert José Tribolet are you not surprised by the blackout?nformat on Windows 10 after the update of an antivirus that, on Friday morning, is affecting the whole world. The professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico is ssurprised that these situations don’t happen more often.
Millions of computers with the Windows 10 operating system installed have stopped working all over the world.
The issue appears to be an automatic update in a security system. North American company Crowdstrikewhich offers antivirus solutions to various companies and organizations globally.
The cybersecurity company has updated its “Falcon” antiviruswhich led to the Microsoft operating system present on many computers crashing.
“Firstly, operating systems with the entire set of components that integrate them from various sources, from various manufacturers, to be able to deal with the important dimensions and ensure the health of a computer system and its operability, it is necessary to an absolutely frightening complexity”, explains the professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico.
He adds, immediately afterwards, that the “It’s surprising that these things don’t happen more often.”.
Threat and reaction
This is because, he explains, when there are technicians and companies from different backgrounds working on components that are within the operating system, “it is andextremely difficult to ensure that things go smoothly”.
Tribolet considers that tests are needed so that “when this component changes, the environment remains healthy and safe and thus interactions continue to work”.
However, many times, “the urgency of a threat and having to change a component to prevent very serious consequencesleads to substitutions being made without having carried out these tests extensively and guaranteeing safety”.
The expert says he is also I’m amazed that there are still so many important companies and services in the world using Windows 10
since it has already been discontinued by Microsoft and does not have “intensive monitoring” by the North American technology giant.
“I had no idea that there were still companies with such important operations that were dependent on Windows 10, when
hto other newer operating systems in the market”, he is surprised.
Conservatism pays off
The same professor explains that “those who have these older systems are more likely to experience a situation like this”. “A system is there, it is installed, but it is always changing. It is a living thing, it is always changing. In this case, an antivirus”, he sums up.
Tribolet still perceives some conservatism in the change because for companies, why change systems that work and are critical to the operation is “always a risk” in addition to “costing a lot of money”.
“People say ‘it’s working, don’t touch it’. But don’t touch it, nowadays, is not true because you are always touching components that are not at the heart of the operating systems, but interact with them”, he describes.
“It’s like in aviation, where changing a small component can cause a catastrophe,” he argues.
José Tribolet waits now an internal investigation from Crowdstrike to the events of this Friday to understand the origin of the problem.
Source: rr.sapo.pt
