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Roundtuit  
#1 Posted : 20 July 2024 11:45:29(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Roundtuit

There are frequent requests for "apps" on this forum.

The Crowdstrike update of 19th July 2024 exposed how poor headline IT system resilience is globally - it appears one key press from oblivion.

The world received a rude awakening about over reliance on technology. Thankfully it was not malicious and will likely soon be forgotten but it does highlight real and prevalent risk.

Should H&S professionals continue to endorse deployment of apps, particularly where the outcome could be a loss of life or life changing event knowing an uncotrolable risk could be present?

Roundtuit  
#2 Posted : 20 July 2024 11:45:29(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Roundtuit

There are frequent requests for "apps" on this forum.

The Crowdstrike update of 19th July 2024 exposed how poor headline IT system resilience is globally - it appears one key press from oblivion.

The world received a rude awakening about over reliance on technology. Thankfully it was not malicious and will likely soon be forgotten but it does highlight real and prevalent risk.

Should H&S professionals continue to endorse deployment of apps, particularly where the outcome could be a loss of life or life changing event knowing an uncotrolable risk could be present?

peter gotch  
#3 Posted : 20 July 2024 14:49:30(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
peter gotch

Thanks Roundtuit

I think the (Health and) Safety Community has rapidly become an Industry of its own, with this, that and the other conference and publication so dependent on content and advertising from suppliers of products including those to enable everything to be done digitally (whether or not the output is fit for purpose) that it will take a major wake up call for many to revert to a recognition of the need for more human input into decision making.

Of course there are benefits to be gained from utilising modern technology, if done with a clear understanding of the pitfalls, both during normal use and when some element of the system goes haywire and consideration of what resilience has been put in to cope with the digital stuff going phut.

achrn  
#4 Posted : 22 July 2024 07:45:58(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
achrn

Originally Posted by: Roundtuit Go to Quoted Post

The Crowdstrike update of 19th July 2024 exposed how poor headline IT system resilience is globally - it appears one key press from oblivion.

Or maybe the world has seen how resilient our IT systems are, given that a potentially catastrophic fault that not only crashed millions of computers but rendered them unable to restart casued only some delayed travel departures and an inability to pay for your skinny-caramel-sloppicino with plastic.

No planes fell out of the sky.  No nuclear power stations went into meltdown. No military was mobilised to contain riots.

thanks 1 user thanked achrn for this useful post.
Kate on 22/07/2024(UTC)
Roundtuit  
#5 Posted : 22 July 2024 08:21:53(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Roundtuit

Originally Posted by: achrn Go to Quoted Post
No planes fell out of the sky. No nuclear power stations went into meltdown. No military was mobilised to contain riots.

Ah yes - Tony Blair and his Y2K "bug"

Roundtuit  
#6 Posted : 22 July 2024 08:21:53(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Roundtuit

Originally Posted by: achrn Go to Quoted Post
No planes fell out of the sky. No nuclear power stations went into meltdown. No military was mobilised to contain riots.

Ah yes - Tony Blair and his Y2K "bug"

Messey  
#7 Posted : 22 July 2024 09:32:47(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Messey

Originally Posted by: achrn Go to Quoted Post
Originally Posted by: Roundtuit Go to Quoted Post

Or maybe the world has seen how resilient our IT systems are, given that a potentially catastrophic fault that not only crashed millions of computers but rendered them unable to restart casued only some delayed travel departures and an inability to pay for your skinny-caramel-sloppicino with plastic.

No planes fell out of the sky.  No nuclear power stations went into meltdown. No military was mobilised to contain riots.


That is exactly how I saw the issue. As far as I know, there were no significant power supply issues, no disasters at petrochemical or nuclear , no major food chain or water/sewage problems......etc

Its probably that the infratsucture that makes up most our critical national infrastructure spend a lot on business continuity to ensure they have a plan B

Contingency plans rarely give 100% service, but if people see the admin around H&S to be as critical as keeping planes in the air or uranium enclosed where it should be, then more cash needs to be spent to back that idea up

I personally do not see H&S (or the paperwork around it) to be hugely critical as long as plans are in place to deal with IT outages

I worked in an industry where the show literally had to go on whatever happened. We had plan Bs, Cs and Ds - these included where possible, sites could operate independantly if IT systems failed.  (& trust me, it did regularly)

What I suspect we will find moving forward is that many businesses had plans, but a good percentage of those were not up to date or rehearsed 

thanks 1 user thanked Messey for this useful post.
peter gotch on 22/07/2024(UTC)
A Kurdziel  
#8 Posted : 23 July 2024 08:48:29(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
A Kurdziel

People’s capacity to cock things up is not limited by technology. I thought Roundtuit was old enough to remember how people managed to screw things without recourse to apps. The safety critical PostIt note that falls off the piece of kit that is being maintained, the logbook which is used to pass on information to the next shift which is not filled in or the letter from the safety adviser explaining why you should not do that, which just gets lost.  Every time you improve technology it replaces old known hazards with  new possibilities. Cars like the old Ford Anglia, had terrible brakes, and had no crumple zone; in a head on crash the engine tended  to end up in the drivers chest. Modern cars mean that    you are much more likely  to walk away from a 50 mph crash in a modern car than in those old deathtraps except that feeling cocooned in you modern quiet vehicle people tend to feel invincible  and tend to drive at 80 when they should be doing 50. Should we go back to the old cars or get people to drive better?  Its not the tech it’s the people.

Edited by user 24 July 2024 08:16:52(UTC)  | Reason: missing word-apology for not being AI

thanks 2 users thanked A Kurdziel for this useful post.
Kate on 23/07/2024(UTC), M.cooper.99 on 23/07/2024(UTC)
Roundtuit  
#9 Posted : 23 July 2024 12:55:36(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Roundtuit

Chalk on a slate hung from a piece of sisal.

The authorities don't want better behaved drivers they want more tech in control of vehicles as they pursue zero accidents neglecting that pedestrains, cyclists and riders are also contributors to the statistics.

Roundtuit  
#10 Posted : 23 July 2024 12:55:36(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Roundtuit

Chalk on a slate hung from a piece of sisal.

The authorities don't want better behaved drivers they want more tech in control of vehicles as they pursue zero accidents neglecting that pedestrains, cyclists and riders are also contributors to the statistics.

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