Nowhere to hide from the long arms of big tech

ere there any doubts about how interconnected we are in Barbados with the rest of the world, those assumptions have been dispelled with the near global disruptions caused by a Microsoft update snag.

There is literally no where on this earth to run from the extensive tentacles of the gigantic technology firms. Those who believed that by opting out from social media platforms will somehow protect you from their intrusion, are sadly mistaken.

As Barbadians undertook their traditional weekend activities and as the country prepares to celebrate the big finale of Crop Over 2024, we learned that a major glitch had occurred somewhere in the world that had somehow prevented people from accessing the automatic banking facilities from at least two commercial banks.

Reuters News Agency reported on Friday that top American carriers including Delta Air and United Airlines were still trying to restore their operations following “a technical issue related to an information technology vendor” that forced to two airlines to ground their flights.

“Delays and cancellations were expected to persist throughout the day, as airlines try to fully recover from the impact of the outage that upended their flying schedules and affected thousands of passengers,” the agency reported.

More than 2000 flights were impacted, while local tourism officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the knock-on effect will not impact the many travellers who have planned summer visits to the island and specifically those planning trips around the Crop Over Festival.

American Airlines indicated that it was able to restore its operations after global tech giant Microsoft and cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike faced a major glitch with Microsoft’s systems update. As a result, the banking, healthcare and a number of other sectors globally were sent offline.

Local insurance company ICBL issued a notice to its clients that the company’s payment portal was knocked out.

The notice read: “Customers should note that our portal payment service is offline due to the worldwide Microsoft-related problem with our acquiring bank. They are working assiduously to remedy the situation. We thank you for your patience and apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

The glitch, which Microsoft insisted was not a hack, was a big enough issue to cause Marsha Caddle, Minister of Industry, Innovation, Science and Technology to make a public statement on the matter. She sought to assure the country that its strategic assets such as the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) and the Grantley Adams international Airport had not been affected by the tech issue.

If a systems software update in the United States, can result in the hobbling of our banking system, even partially, represents a serious problem.

It begs the question how do we provide some protective barrier from the disabling effect of big tech firms in industrialised countries? This is exactly why some Barbadians expressed worry when the local banking sector abandoned the indigenous CARIFS electronic payments support system for our debit cards in favour of externally controlled systems operated by VISA and Mastercard.

Yes, VISA and Mastercard are innovators in the technology, but the island’s financial sector gave up a measure of autonomy with the move. If the two credit card giants decide next week to change the terms of engagement, there is little that a pint-sized market can do to exert influence on the VISA and Mastercard.

In fact, many local banking clients will concede that they never experienced as many online fraud attacks on their cards as they have since switching over from CARIFS.

The incident today demonstrates our vulnerabilities and how important it is to learn how to manoeuvre safely in the tech world.