Conspiracy theories circulate online following global IT outage caused by faulty CrowdStrike update

By avagrace // 2024-07-25

Mastodon

Parler

Gab

Copy

Conspiracy theories began circulating online days after the global IT outage caused by a faulty security update crippled companies worldwide. A faulty software update to an antivirus program operating on Microsoft Windows caused technology outages across the world, affecting companies and services from airlines and banks to TV channels and financial institutions. The issue was traced to an update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. But the chaos didn't just happen in the offline world, as many conspiracy theories emerged in the wake of the outage. These include a looming World War III scenario and rumors of globalists being behind the outage. "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," France 24 pointed out. Most of these conspiracy theories had origins at and circulated on Elon Musk's X platform. They peddled an apocalyptic narrative: The world was under attack by a nefarious force. Even assurances by CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz that the company had rolled out a fix and was actively working to resolve the crisis did little to stem the spread of online conspiracies. (Related: Microsoft CrowdStrike payment blackout caused supermarkets to go CASH ONLY.) "Combating this misinformation with factual rebuttals is difficult because the issue is so technical," explained Michael Mosser, executive director of the Global Disinformation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. "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." "This poses the larger question of combating mis- and disinformation. 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."

Globalist WEF at the center of these conspiracy theories

The recent glitch also brought up a theory that the globalist World Economic Forum (WEF) had plotted a global cyberattack. To back this up, an old WEF video was reposted – with the said clip warning about the possibility of a "cyberattack with COVID-like characteristics." According to the video, 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. Aside from this, conspiratorial posts with the hashtag "cyber polygon" made the rounds on social media. This made reference to a global training event aimed at preparing for potential future attacks. Rafi Mendelsohn, vice president of the disinfo security company Cyabra, pointed out that the event illustrates the "volatile nature of the information ecosystem." "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," he added. "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." Check out Conspiracy.news for more similar stories. Watch this video of an IT expert breaking down the Microsoft glitch caused by CrowdStrike's faulty security update. This video is from the TrendingNews channel on Brighteon.com.

CITIZENS NEWS

Globalist WEF at the center of these conspiracy theories

More related stories: