Founder of The Dawn Project Dan O’Dowd examines the danger of using bug ridden commercial grade software in critical infrastructure.
Dan O’Dowd’s comments were published on 19 July 2024 in The Los Angeles Times, Business Insider and The Independent.
Dan O’Dowd commented: “The dangers of deploying commercial grade software in safety critical systems cannot be understated. The immense body of software developed using Silicon Valley’s ‘move fast and break things’ culture means that the software our lives depend on is riddled with defects and vulnerabilities. Defects in this software can result in a mass failure event even more serious than the one we have seen today.”
Commenting on the use of commercial grade software in critical infrastructure, O’Dowd said: “We have seen that our healthcare, communications, transportation, water treatment plants, and power grids are all reliant on connected systems built on defective software that can cause the world to grind to halt from a single defect.
“We must convince the CEOs and Boards of Directors of the companies that build the systems our lives depend on to rewrite their software so that it never fails and can’t be hacked. The clock is ticking down to a Cyber Armageddon. Secure and reliable software exists – it is already deployed in military applications and on commercial airliners. These companies will not take cybersecurity seriously until the public demands it. And we must demand it now, before a major disaster strikes.”