Outage was caused by a logic error in a sensor configuration update for Microsoft Windows systems which led to a system crash, affecting critical sectors like healthcare and banking.

• Later, an assessment by the RBI showed that 10 banks and NBFCs in India had minor disruptions due to this global outage.

Impact of IT outages on critical services

• Economic disruption: Freezing of financial markets, shutdown of businesses reliant on cloud services, etc.
  • e.g., In 2021, major outage in National Stock Exchange outage halted trading for nearly 4 hours.
• Healthcare: Disruption of telemedicine services, inaccessible digital health records, etc.
  • e.g., 2017 Wannacry Ransomware attack on Hospitals in UK led to cancellation of ~19000 appointments
• Government and security: e.g., 2020 cybersecurity breach at Kundankulam Nuclear Power Plant of NPCIL.
• Others: Communication breakdown, energy sector disruptions due to failure of smart grids, etc.

Vulnerability of digital infrastructure in India

• Import dependence: Heavy reliance on imported hardware and software create supply chain vulnerabilities and security risks.
• Large digital footprint with low digital literacy: Only 38% of households in India are digitally literate. (CBWE)
• Limited redundancy: Lack of adequate backup and redundancy measures, making systems more vulnerable to single points of failure.
• Others: State-sponsored cyber-attacks, lack of robust cybersecurity protocols, etc.