Preparing for the Next Worldwide Tech Outage
Kanebridge News
    HOUSE MEDIAN ASKING PRICES AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $1,638,545 (+0.82%)       Melbourne $1,023,679 (+1.75%)       Brisbane $1,038,818 (+0.18%)       Adelaide $951,068 (+0.69%)       Perth $923,390 (-0.21%)       Hobart $759,192 (-0.42%)       Darwin $769,355 (-0.10%)       Canberra $964,485 (-0.83%)       National $1,074,245 (+0.50%)                UNIT MEDIAN ASKING PRICES AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $777,604 (+1.00%)       Melbourne $478,404 (+0.18%)       Brisbane $668,589 (+0.89%)       Adelaide $498,047 (-0.58%)       Perth $519,492 (+1.90%)       Hobart $528,197 (-0.03%)       Darwin $378,865 (-1.17%)       Canberra $494,950 (+0.08%)       National $567,655 (+0.60%)                HOUSES FOR SALE AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 11,855 (+190)       Melbourne 14,114 (-991)       Brisbane 8,271 (+242)       Adelaide 2,797 (+147)       Perth 7,549 (+147)       Hobart 1,213 (+7)       Darwin 181 (-4)       Canberra 1,228 (+25)       National 47,208 (-237)                UNITS FOR SALE AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 9,100 (+118)       Melbourne 6,842 (-31)       Brisbane 1,703 (+24)       Adelaide 418 (+32)       Perth 1,696 (+19)       Hobart 245 (+15)       Darwin 279 (+8)       Canberra 1,140 (-4)       National 21,423 (+181)                HOUSE MEDIAN ASKING RENTS AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $800 ($0)       Melbourne $590 ($0)       Brisbane $650 ($0)       Adelaide $620 ($0)       Perth $695 (-$5)       Hobart $555 (-$15)       Darwin $780 (+$20)       Canberra $700 ($0)       National $684 (+$1)                UNIT MEDIAN ASKING RENTS AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $750 ($0)       Melbourne $600 ($0)       Brisbane $650 (+$5)       Adelaide $525 (+$25)       Perth $650 ($0)       Hobart $480 (-$13)       Darwin $570 (+$5)       Canberra $570 (-$10)       National $610 (+$1)                HOUSES FOR RENT AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 6,415 (-92)       Melbourne 8,122 (-49)       Brisbane 4,023 (-50)       Adelaide 1,424 (-45)       Perth 2,128 (-99)       Hobart 232 (+21)       Darwin 103 (-17)       Canberra 559 (-41)       National 23,006 (-372)                UNITS FOR RENT AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 9,115 (-492)       Melbourne 6,656 (-238)       Brisbane 2,047 (-142)       Adelaide 349 (-56)       Perth 639 (-48)       Hobart 107 (+5)       Darwin 178 (-21)       Canberra 550 (-3)       National 19,641 (-995)                HOUSE ANNUAL GROSS YIELDS AND TREND         Sydney 2.54% (↓)       Melbourne 3.00% (↓)       Brisbane 3.25% (↓)       Adelaide 3.39% (↓)       Perth 3.91% (↓)       Hobart 3.80% (↓)     Darwin 5.27% (↑)      Canberra 3.77% (↑)        National 3.31% (↓)            UNIT ANNUAL GROSS YIELDS AND TREND         Sydney 5.02% (↓)       Melbourne 6.52% (↓)       Brisbane 5.06% (↓)     Adelaide 5.48% (↑)        Perth 6.51% (↓)       Hobart 4.73% (↓)     Darwin 7.82% (↑)        Canberra 5.99% (↓)       National 5.58% (↓)            HOUSE RENTAL VACANCY RATES AND TREND       Sydney 2.0% (↑)      Melbourne 1.9% (↑)      Brisbane 1.4% (↑)      Adelaide 1.3% (↑)      Perth 1.2% (↑)      Hobart 1.0% (↑)      Darwin 1.6% (↑)      Canberra 2.7% (↑)      National 1.7% (↑)             UNIT RENTAL VACANCY RATES AND TREND       Sydney 2.4% (↑)      Melbourne 3.8% (↑)      Brisbane 2.0% (↑)      Adelaide 1.1% (↑)      Perth 0.9% (↑)      Hobart 1.4% (↑)      Darwin 2.8% (↑)      Canberra 2.9% (↑)      National 2.2% (↑)             AVERAGE DAYS TO SELL HOUSES AND TREND         Sydney 29.5 (↓)       Melbourne 31.6 (↓)       Brisbane 31.5 (↓)       Adelaide 26.2 (↓)       Perth 41.1 (↓)       Hobart 33.2 (↓)       Darwin 24.8 (↓)       Canberra 32.7 (↓)       National 31.3 (↓)            AVERAGE DAYS TO SELL UNITS AND TREND         Sydney 25.4 (↓)       Melbourne 31.6 (↓)       Brisbane 27.4 (↓)       Adelaide 23.7 (↓)       Perth 41.0 (↓)       Hobart 26.8 (↓)       Darwin 45.2 (↓)       Canberra 43.3 (↓)       National 33.0 (↓)           
Share Button

Preparing for the Next Worldwide Tech Outage

CIOs can take steps now to reduce risks associated with today’s IT landscape

By BELLE LIN
Fri, Jul 26, 2024 8:58amGrey Clock 3 min

As tech leaders race to bring Windows systems back online after Friday’s software update by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike crashed around 8.5 million machines worldwide, experts share with CIO Journal their takeaways for preparing for the next major information technology outage.

Be familiar with how vendors develop, test and release their software

IT leaders should hold vendors deeply integrated within IT systems, such as CrowdStrike , to a “very high standard” of development, release quality and assurance, said Neil MacDonald , a Gartner vice president.

“Any security vendor has a responsibility to do extensive regression testing on all versions of Windows before an update is rolled out,” he said.

That involves asking existing vendors to explain how they write software, what testing they do and whether customers may choose how quickly to roll out an update.

“Incidents like this remind all of us in the CIO community of the importance of ensuring availability, reliability and security by prioritizing guardrails such as deployment and testing procedures and practices,” said Amy Farrow, chief information officer of IT automation and security company Infoblox.

Re-evaluate how your firm accepts software updates from ‘trusted’ vendors

While automatically accepting software updates has become the norm—and a recommended security practice—the CrowdStrike outage is a reminder to take a pause, some CIOs said.

“We still should be doing the full testing of packages and upgrades and new features,” said Paul Davis, a field chief information security officer at software development platform maker JFrog . undefined undefined Though it’s not feasible to test every update, especially for as many as hundreds of software vendors, Davis said he makes it a priority to test software patches according to their potential severity and size.

Automation, and maybe even artificial intelligence-based IT tools, can help.

“Humans are not very good at catching errors in thousands of lines of code,” said Jack Hidary, chief executive of AI and quantum company SandboxAQ. “We need AI trained to look for the interdependence of new software updates with the existing stack of software.”

Develop a disaster recovery plan

An incident rendering Windows computers unusable is similar to a natural disaster with systems knocked offline, said Gartner’s MacDonald. That’s why businesses should consider natural disaster recovery plans for maintaining the resiliency of their operations.

One way to do that is to set up a “clean room,” or an environment isolated from other systems, to use to bring critical systems back online, according to Chirag Mehta, a cybersecurity analyst at Constellation Research.

Businesses should also hold tabletop exercises to simulate risk scenarios, including IT outages and potential cyber threats, Mehta said.

Companies that back up data regularly were likely less impacted by the CrowdStrike outage, according to Victor Zyamzin, chief business officer of security company Qrator Labs. “Another suggestion for companies, and we’ve been saying that again and again for decades, is that you should have some backup procedure applied, running and regularly tested,” he said.

Review vendor and insurance contracts

For any vendor with a significant impact on company operations , MacDonald said companies can review their contracts and look for clauses indicating the vendors must provide reliable and stable software.

“That’s where you may have an advantage to say, if an update causes an outage, is there a clause in the contract that would cover that?” he said.

If it doesn’t, tech leaders can aim to negotiate a discount serving as a form of compensation at renewal time, MacDonald added.

The outage also highlights the importance of insurance in providing companies with bottom-line protection against cyber risks, said Peter Halprin, a partner with law firm Haynes Boone focused on cyber insurance.

This coverage can include protection against business income losses, such as those associated with an outage, whether caused by the insured company or a service provider, Halprin said.

Weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the various platforms

The CrowdStrike update affected only devices running Microsoft Windows-based systems , prompting fresh questions over whether enterprises should rely on Windows computers.

CrowdStrike runs on Windows devices through access to the kernel, the part of an operating system containing a computer’s core functions. That’s not the same for Apple ’s Mac operating system and Linux, which don’t allow the same level of access, said Mehta.

Some businesses have converted to Chromebooks , simple laptops developed by Alphabet -owned Google that run on the Chrome operating system . “Not all of them require deeper access to things,” Mehta said. “What are you doing on your laptop that actually requires Windows?”



MOST POPULAR
11 ACRES ROAD, KELLYVILLE, NSW

This stylish family home combines a classic palette and finishes with a flexible floorplan

35 North Street Windsor

Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.

Related Stories
Money
NAB’s Earnings Hit by Higher Business-Loan Impairments
By Stuart Condie 19/02/2025
Money
Tech Giants Double Down on Their Massive AI Spending
By NATE RATTNER AND JASON DEAN 07/02/2025
Money
OpenAI in Talks for Huge Investment Round Valuing It Up to $300 Billion
By BERBER JIN and DEEPA SEETHARAMAN 31/01/2025
NAB’s Earnings Hit by Higher Business-Loan Impairments

The bank posted unaudited cash earnings for the quarter of A$1.7 billion, down 2% on the average of its prior two quarters

By Stuart Condie
Wed, Feb 19, 2025 < 1 min

National Australia Bank said that higher credit impairments against business loans contributed to a small fall in its unaudited December quarter cash earnings.

NAB , which is Australia’s second-largest bank by market capitalization, on Wednesday posted unaudited cash earnings for its fiscal first quarter of 1.74 billion Australian dollars, equivalent to about US$1.11 billion.

That was down 2% on the average of its prior two fiscal quarters. NAB did not give a year-earlier comparison.

The lender said that revenue grew by 3% compared with the average of its prior two fiscal quarters. Underlying profit growth of 4% over the same period was offset by higher credit impairment charges and income tax expenses, it added.

NAB, which posted an unaudited quarterly statutory profit of A$1.70 billion, said the A$267 million credit impairment charge included A$152 million of individually assessed charges. Those were mainly against Australian businesses and unsecured retail portfolios, it said.

The individual charges were up by 54% compared with a year earlier. NAB said that it had not altered its economic assumptions and scenario weightings.

“The economic outlook is improving but cost of living and interest rate challenges persisted,” Chief Executive Andrew Irvine said. “While most customers are proving resilient, we have maintained prudent balance sheet settings.”

NAB said it had seen a small decline in net interest margin due to funding costs, lending competition and deposits, partially offset by the benefit of higher interest rates.

On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia cut the country’s cash rate for the first time since 2020 but warned against expecting subsequent near-term cuts.

NAB is still targeting full fiscal-year productivity savings of more than A$400 million, and for operating expenses to grow by less than 4.5%, Irvine said.

MOST POPULAR
11 ACRES ROAD, KELLYVILLE, NSW

This stylish family home combines a classic palette and finishes with a flexible floorplan

35 North Street Windsor

Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.

Related Stories
Property of the Week
WHY WILLOW VALE MILL IS A ONE-OF-A-KIND COUNTRY ESTATE
By Kirsten Craze 20/12/2024
Money
China Pumps Up Support for Country’s Stock Markets
By TRACY QU 23/01/2025
Property of the Week
COASTAL DREAMING: A WORLD CLASS BEACH HOUSE UNVEILED
By Kirsten Craze 10/01/2025
0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyReturn to Shop