From fearmongering about a looming "World War III" to false narratives linking a cabal of global elite to a cyberattack, a torrent of online conspiracy theories took off Friday after a major IT crash.
Airlines, banks, TV channels and financial institutions were engulfed in turmoil after the crash, one of the biggest in recent years that was the result of a faulty software update to an antivirus program operating on Microsoft Windows.
The proliferation of internet-breaking conspiracy theories on social media platforms -- many of which have removed guardrails that once contained the spread of misinformation -- illustrates the new normal of information chaos after a major world event.
The outage gave way to a swirl of evidence-free posts on X, the Elon Musk-owned site formerly known as Twitter, that peddled an apocalyptic narrative: The world was under attack by a nefarious force.
"I read somewhere once that ww3 (World War III) would be mostly a cyber war," one user wrote on X.
The IT crash also stirred up an unfounded theory that the World Economic Forum -- long a magnet for wild falsehoods -- had plotted a global cyberattack.
To make that theory appear credible, many posts linked an old WEF video that warned about the possibility of a "cyberattack with Covid-like characteristics."
The video, available on the WEF's website, had cautioned that the only way to stop the exponential spread of the cyber threat would be to disconnect millions of vulnerable devices from each other and the internet.
- 'Sad testament' -
The WEF has long been a target for conspiracy theorists pushing the idea of a shadowy cabal of elites working for private gain under the garb of solving global issues.
Also gaining rapid traction online were conspiratorial posts using the hashtag "cyber polygon," a reference to a global training event aimed at preparing for potential future attacks.
"The proliferation of conspiracy theories in the wake of major global events such as the outage is a sad testament to the volatile nature of the information ecosystem," Rafi Mendelsohn, vice president at the disinformation security company Cyabra, told AFP.
"What is unique to events like these is how social media platforms, forums, and messaging apps facilitate the rapid dissemination of content, allowing theories to gain traction quickly and reach a global audience."
The trend demonstrates the ability of falsehoods to mutate into viral narratives on tech platforms, which have scaled back content moderation and reinstated accounts that are known purveyors of misinformation.
During fast-developing news events, confusion now often reigns on major tech platforms, with users scrambling to obtain accurate information in what appears to be a sea of false or misleading posts that rapidly gain traction.
- 'Nefarious motives' -
"This poses the larger question of combatting mis- and disinformation," Michael W. Mosser, executive director of the Global Disinformation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, told AFP.
"The level of trust that is required to accept information from reputable sources has declined to such an extent that people are more willing to believe wild conspiracies that 'must be true' rather than the factual information relayed to them."
The global outage, which brought myriad aspects of daily life to a standstill and sent US stocks falling, was linked to a bug in an update to an antivirus program for Windows systems from American cybersecurity group CrowdStrike.
Assurances by the Austin-based company's chief executive, George Kurtz, that CrowdStrike had rolled out a fix and was "actively working" to resolve the crisis did little to stem the spread of online conspiracies.
"Combatting this misinformation with factual rebuttals is difficult, because the issue is so technical," Mosser said.
"Explaining that the fault was in an improperly configured system file and that a fix is in process may be accurate, but it is not believed by those who are predisposed to see nefarious motives behind failures."
Questions about tech dependency
Catastrophic computer outages caused by a software update from one company have once again exposed the dangers of global technological dependence on a handful of players, experts warned on Friday.
A flawed update sent out by the little-known security firm CrowdStrike brought airlines, TV stations, and myriad other aspects of daily life to a standstill.
The outages affected companies or individuals that use CrowdStrike on the Microsoft Windows platform: when they applied the update, the incompatible software crashed computers into a frozen state known as the "Blue Screen of Death."
"Today CrowdStrike has become a household name, but not in a good way, and this will take time to settle down," said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities.
The breakdown quickly fueled discussions about internet giants' power over the increasingly digital world economy, with more activity now taking place in the computing "cloud" or on a few apps or platforms.
- Just 'a taste' -
When those platforms have flaws -- or are deliberately attacked -- the world seems to collapse.
In recent months, entire healthcare systems and industries have been paralyzed after hackers infiltrated their systems, leaving consumers at their wits' end and companies at a loss.
"I think we're just getting a taste of some potential effects of real reliance by the financial sector and sectors across the economy on a handful of cloud companies and other key systems," Rohit Chopra, director of the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told CNBC.
"There are just a handful of big cloud companies where so much of the economy is now resting."
The world has seen a major shift to cloud computing, where companies use servers offered by big tech giants for their computing needs instead of their own infrastructure.
Amazon, through its AWS company, is the world leader, followed by Microsoft's Azure and Google Cloud.
Friday's breakdown was caused by a malfunctioning software update fed to Microsoft Windows users by CrowdStrike, which specializes in cybersecurity for cloud-based companies.
"We're deeply sorry for the impact we've caused to customers, travelers, and anyone affected by this," CrowdStrike CEO Kurtz said in an interview on NBC's "Today" show.
Microsoft blamed the problems on CrowdStrike, but industry insiders warned that the issue stems from entrusting the digital world to just a few key companies.
"It's going to continue to raise issues for systems or businesses wholly dependent on Microsoft -– this issue of concentration risk," Michael Daniel, former White House cybersecurity coordinator and current head of the Cyber Threat Alliance told AFP.
"How do you balance the benefits of having everybody on the same operating system with the concentration risk that poses?"
Callie Guenther, senior manager of cyber threat research at Critical Start, warned that the shift to big players amplifies the impact of any system failure or vulnerability.
One error, like CrowdStrike's on Friday, threatens society's smooth functioning worldwide, she said.
- No contingency plan -
Andrius Minkevicius, co-founder of Cyber Upgrade, a cybersecurity company, said that businesses must fight the complacency often associated with outsourcing technology to the big vendors.
"Today, we're seeing an example of those who relied mostly on vendor-offered cyber protection without additional contingency plans and are now suffering reputational and financial damage," he said.
Experts warn that this incident will likely invite scrutiny from regulators and officials.
"CrowdStrike will probably have to let some outside people come in and examine how this happened," said Cyber Threat Alliance's Daniel.