When tech fails, we need to rely on each other more

Opinion: I don’t know if anyone else who has watched Leave the World Behind on Netflix began to wonder if its apocalyptic storyline was unfolding in real time as news filtered out on Friday evening about booking systems going off-line, flights being grounded and blue screens dominating self-service checkouts across the world.
Although CrowdStrike relatively quickly reassured us this was a defect in a software update for a security product, it was pause for thought. The key message on Friday night was that it had been fixed and therefore was not the cyberattack that Leave the World Behind foreshadows. But what if it had not been such an easy fix, or worse that it was an act of cyber warfare?
I am not technology-minded. I explained this once to my brilliant niece, whose future is assured in a sector that didn’t even exist when I was her age. I told her a while ago that I didn’t get gaming. She asked if I did Wordle, which I do. It’s all code, she said. I didn’t get that either. Despite that, I have been reading about what happened on Friday, and like my discussion with my niece, much of the technical detail has been over my head. But even in my state of ignorance, I have felt a sense of disquiet since Friday.
Many commentators have complimented CrowdStrike on what was a masterclass in the Three Fs of crisis communications – Foul up, Fess up, Fix up (or variations thereof) – and leaders could all do well to understand the importance of this. But there has been something else that has been preying on my mind.
Is what happened the wake-up call we need to realise that all these interdependencies make us vulnerable when systems fail? What is our fallback position when we can’t do things we have come to rely on? What do we use if we can’t use electronic transactions for a certain amount of time? How do we communicate when networks go down? How much do we know about the technology we rely on, and how much do we need to know?
Two of my recent columns seem to connect on this subject.
My column from May 8 spoke about a book that opened my eyes to significant concerns with commissioning big projects, How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner, which includes a whole chapter on big IT projects. I didn’t comment on the IT chapter as it was pretty much over my head. I was drawn, however, to Flyvbjerg’s comments about the CrowdStrike failure on LinkedIn. He said the cure would be different models for IT development, with an emphasis on black swan management and building big from small. He said that “for a safe and well-functioning society it is crucially important we understand and act on this”. We need to limit these vulnerabilities being created in the first place.
In my column last week, I asked about preparedness not just for response but for recovery after a magnitude 8 earthquake on the Alpine Fault. I received a message from the Inner-City Wellington Residents Association, who reinforced the need to include the community when thinking about preparedness. They told me many of the inner-city residents they represent live in more than 100 apartment buildings in Te Aro and Wellington Central. I hadn’t known that in addition to being an advocacy group, they promote actions that make their patch a better place. They drew my attention to a project called Lifeboat Buildings which they are trying to get underway. They thought I may be interested. And so it was that I came to read about a collaboration between the association, the Wellington Regional Emergency Management Office, and Neighbourhood Support.
They want to help apartment building residents to consider what they can do to be better prepared for an emergency. The website contains a simple checklist that won’t just mean your building is a lifeboat in a time of crisis, it will be a friendlier and more cooperative place to live all year round. It seemed to me that technology vulnerabilities also require us to follow this advice.
Getting to know your neighbours is the top of the list. If we don’t know each other, how do we know they have special needs that will require attention in an emergency? This is vital, especially where there is a dependency on medical equipment that needs power for example.
Having a checklist of what needs to be stored in the building for emergencies and what could be shared. Could extra storage lockers be located on each floor? Could we practise what we would do in an emergency. If we need to leave, where would we go? What is available in our community? What happens when there is a power cut to the building? What alternative power sources do we have? How can emergency services get in if needed?
The residents association is working with Wellington Regional Emergency Management Office on guidelines for people living in apartment buildings, and Neighbourhood Support resources are available to help people build resilience plans. This is great stuff, and I encourage every apartment building dweller to at least put this on the agenda of their body corporate.
When technology fails, we will need to rely on each other much more, so we need to get to know each other now. Let’s do what we can to prepare ourselves, hoping that the powers-that-be pick up the challenge of the big picture issues that could reduce our vulnerability to systems failures now and in the future.