There is no hiding from the long arms of Big Tech

WestIf anyone had any doubts about how well connected Barbados is to the rest of the world, those assumptions were dispelled by the global outage caused by a glitch in a Microsoft update.

There is virtually no place on earth to escape the vast tentacles of Big Tech. Those who think they can protect themselves from them by quitting social media platforms are sadly mistaken.

Barbadians are enjoying their traditional weekend activities as the nation prepares to celebrate Harvest in 2024we learn that a major outage has occurred somewhere in the world, preventing people from using automated banking services at at least two commercial banks.

Reuters reported on Friday that top U.S. airlines such as Delta Air Lines and United Airlines are still struggling to resume operations after “technical issues related to an information technology vendor” grounded both airlines.

“Flight delays and cancellations are expected to continue throughout the day as airlines work to fully recover from the impact of the suspension, which has disrupted their flight schedules and affected thousands of passengers,” the agency reported.

More than 2,000 flights were affected, and local tourism officials prayed that the ripple effect would not affect the many tourists planning to visit the island in the summer, especially those planning to Cropping festival.

American Airlines said it was able to resume operations after global tech giant Microsoft and cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike were hit by a major Microsoft system update failure that crippled global banking, healthcare and many other industries.

Local insurance company ICBL sent a notice to its customers saying that the company’s payment portal had been paralyzed.

The notification reads: “Customers, please note that our portal payment service is offline due to a Microsoft-related issue with our acquiring bank worldwide. They are working to remedy the situation. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.”

Microsoft insisted the outage was not the work of hackers, but the problem was serious enough for Industry, Innovation, Science and Technology Minister Martha Caddell to make a public statement on the matter. She sought to reassure the country that strategic assets such as the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) and Grantley Adams International Airport were not affected by the technical issue.

If a software update to the U.S. system causes our banking system to be in trouble, even partially, that would be a serious problem.

This begs the question: how do we provide some protection from the disruptive influence of large technology companies in industrialized countries? This is why some Barbadians expressed concern when the local banking industry abandoned the home-grown CARIFS electronic payment support system for our debit cards in favor of external control systems operated by VISA and MasterCard.

Yes, Visa and MasterCard are technology innovators, but the move also means Taiwan’s financial industry is giving up a degree of autonomy. If the two credit card giants decide to change the terms of their cooperation next week, the small market of Taiwan will have little influence on Visa and MasterCard.

In fact, many local bank customers admitted that since switching from CARIFS, their cards have never been attacked by so many online frauds.

Today’s events highlight our vulnerabilities and how important it is to learn how to operate safely in a technological world.