By Yago Morgan
The world has woken up to one of the biggest, if not the biggest, cyber failures on record. Airlines, financial institutions and television broadcasters around the world are facing instabilities in their services due to a breach in a cybersecurity service provider.
In simple terms, these affected companies use the services of third-party companies to supplement their systems and applications. It’s like a car, where several parts fit together during manufacture, and not all parts are produced by the same manufacturer.
During the update of one of this cybersecurity provider’s systems, it ended up triggering a failure in several other systems that were connected to it. Continuing the analogy with car manufacturing, the tire manufacturer supplies both assembly plant A and assembly plant B, and any problems in the manufacture of these tires can impact both assembly plants.
Although this is not a common occurrence, it is one that serves as a warning to all nations in general. The digitalization of services brings countless benefits, transforming the way we work, communicate and manage our businesses. However, all this transformation also brings with it a series of risks that cannot be underestimated, otherwise we will inevitably be faced with severe damage, as in the case experienced on Friday (19). It is still too early to say what the root cause of the crisis was, but it is clear that poor risk management contributed to the catastrophic outcome.
Yago Morgan is a lawyer specializing in security and data protection