{"id":82989,"date":"2024-07-28T21:22:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-28T21:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/technologys-grip-on-modern-life-is-pushing-us-down-a-dimly-lit-path-of-digital-land-mines-daily-times\/"},"modified":"2024-07-28T21:22:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-28T21:22:00","slug":"technologys-grip-on-modern-life-is-pushing-us-down-a-dimly-lit-path-of-digital-land-mines-daily-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/technologys-grip-on-modern-life-is-pushing-us-down-a-dimly-lit-path-of-digital-land-mines-daily-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology's grip on modern life is pushing us down a dimly lit path of digital land mines – Daily Times"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"\"\u201cMove fast and break things,\u201d a high-tech mantra popularized 20 years ago by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, was supposed to be a rallying cry for game-changing innovation. It now seems more like an elegy for a society perched on a digital foundation too fragile to withstand a defective software program that was supposed to help protect computers \u2013 not crash them.<\/p>\n

The worldwide technology meltdown caused by a flawed update installed earlier this month on computers running on Microsoft\u2019s dominant Windows software by cybersecurity specialist CrowdStrike was so serious that some affected businesses such as Delta Air Lines were still recovering from it days later.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tell-tale moment \u2013 one that illustrates the digital pitfalls looming in a culture that takes the magic of technology for granted until it implodes into a horror show that exposes our ignorance and vulnerability.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are utterly dependent on systems that we don\u00b4t even know exist until they break,\u201d said Paul Saffo, a Silicon Valley forecaster and historian. \u201cWe have become a little bit like Blanche DuBois in that scene from `A Streetcar Named Desire,\u00b4 where she says, `I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.\u00b4 \u201d<\/p>\n

The dependence \u2013 and extreme vulnerability \u2013 starts with the interconnections that bind our computers, phones and other devices. That usually makes life easier and more convenient, but it also means outages can have more far-reaching ripple effects, whether they are caused by a mistake like the one made by CrowdStrike or through the malicious intent of a hacker.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might be time to look at how the internet works and then question why the internet works this way. Because there is a lot of gum and shoelaces holding things together,\u201d said Gregory Falco, an assistant professor of engineering at Cornell University.<\/p>\n

The risks are being amplified by the tightening control of a corporate coterie popularly known as \u201cBig Tech\u201d: Microsoft, whose software runs most of the world\u2019s computers; Apple and Google, whose software powers virtually all of the world\u2019s smartphones; Amazon, which oversees data centers responsible for keeping websites running (another key service provided by Microsoft and Google, too, in addition to its e-commerce bazaar); and Meta Platforms, the social networking hub that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a highly concentrated empire with a few corridors open to a network of smaller companies such as CrowdStrike \u2013 a company with $3 billion in annual revenue, a fraction of the nearly $250 billion in annual sales that Microsoft reels in. All of the key players still tend to put a higher priority on the pursuit of profit than a commitment to quality, said Isak Nti Asar, co-director of the cybersecurity and global policy program at Indiana University.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have built a cult of innovation, a system that says. `Get technology into people\u00b4s hands as quick as possible and then fix it when you find out you have a problem,\u00b4\u201d Nti Asar said. \u201cWe should be moving slower and demanding better technology instead of giving ourselves up to these feudal lords.\u201d<\/p>\n

But is Big Tech to blame for that situation? Or is it 21st-century society that obliviously allowed us to get to this point \u2013 consumers eagerly buying their next shiny devices while gleefully posting pictures online, and the seemingly overmatched lawmakers elected to impose safeguards?<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody wants to point the blame somewhere else,\u201d Saffo said, \u201cbut I would say you better start looking in the mirror.\u201d<\/p>\n

If our digital evolution seems to be headed in the wrong direction, should we change course? Or is that even possible at a juncture where some credit card companies charge their customers a fee if they prefer to have their monthly billing systems delivered to them through a U.S. Postal Service that has become known as \u201csnail mail\u201d because it moves so slowly?<\/p>\n

Remaining stuck in a different era worked out well for Southwest Airlines during the CrowdStrike snafu because its system is still running on Windows software from the 1990s. It\u2019s such antiquated technology that Southwest doesn\u2019t rely on CrowdStrike for security.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cMove fast and break things,\u201d a high-tech mantra popularized 20 years ago by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, was supposed to be a rallying cry for game-changing innovation. It now seems more like an elegy for a society perched on a digital foundation too fragile to withstand a defective software program that was supposed to help […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dailytimes.com.pk\/assets\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Anchor-31.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-updates-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}