Due to a software update bug, tens of millions of computers and IT systems around the globe crashed simultaneously on Friday, July 19, paralyzing airports, social security offices and shutting down many businesses.
Alexandru Panait digitized many town halls in Romania and America PHOTO personal archive
A software update from US cyber security firm CrowdStrike caused all the chaos, highlighting the fragility of the global economy and its reliance on computer systems that few ordinary people pay attention to.
Numerous Fortune 500 companies use CrowdStrike software to detect and block cyber threats. This time, computers running Microsoft Windows, one of the world’s most popular computer programs, crashed because of the way a code update issued by CrowdStrike interacted with Windows.
“Truth” talked about the world IT gridlock with an IT expert. It is about Alexandru Panait, the young man who digitized several thousand town halls in Romania and several dozen others in the United States.
In April 2021, Alexandru Panait, the young man who created the ePrimariaTa project, through which thousands of Romanian town halls were digitized, identified a major security breach on SNEP (National Electronic Payment System), a breach that could have affected personal data of millions of Romanians.
“Because of the lack of responsibility this happened. Due to an update, an enormous number of systems were affected. As a rule, before the update, the systems must be tested. Very good communication is needed between all the actors and all the teams involved”, said Alexandru Panait for “Adevărul”.
How can such blockages be prevented?
The eminent young man also explained what ways there are to prevent such software problems leading to global shutdowns in the future.
“There are ways to prevent such blockages in the future. The implications of the new update must be tested before each time and tested in an environment that perfectly resembles production. This way we can make sure that such huge problems don’t happen again in the future”says Alexandru Panait.
The initial e-PrimariaTa project developed by Alexandru Panait attracted the attention of the European Commission, being included in the Next Generation Internet initiative, which aims to strengthen technological research links between Europe and the United States.
In 2023, Alexandru Panait was selected to collaborate for six months with the Blockchain department at Arizona State University. During this collaboration, the eminent young Romanian published a research paper exploring the future of democracy in the age of modern technology and how initiatives like Gov-Smart can facilitate this transition.
