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In Defence of Closed Protocol

07 Dec 2024

Pinpoint engineer installs system in roof
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Last week, on the 19th of July an infosec platform released an update that resulted in 8.5 million Windows machines worldwide crashing to a temporarily unrecoverable state. The consequences ranged from A&Es not being able to operate, planes being grounded, banks not being able to process transactions, and even the Mercedes F1 team (of whom CrowdStrike is a title sponsor) having trouble in practice that day in Hungary.


The damage done by this outage is hard to calculate. Not only have Crowdstrike’s stocks fallen 33%, but the toll on businesses that were unable to operate, the system administrators who worked overtime to remedy the issue and potentially a loss of life are far beyond any financial figure.

So, in the aftermath of these events, we are faced with 4 questions.

What happened?

What did we do about it? 

How were we affected?

How can we prevent this from happening again?

Well; we’ve already covered what happened. Now for what did we here at Pinpoint do about it – absolutely nothing.

We were completely unaffected by this outage.

Herein lies the advantage of closed protocol systems such as ours.

We aren’t affected by the loss of 3rd party services. In a time where increasingly more of our lives and the services we rely on have become an amalgamation of technology, when one of the links in the chain breaks down,  it can result in the loss of an entire service.

How many businesses couldn’t operate and had to close because they couldn’t take card payments? How many businesses could not operate booking platforms? According to The Guardian – around 538 businesses of the Fortune 1000 were affected. A shockingly large proportion.

Of course, such issues are often unforeseeable and indeed unavoidable in some cases.

However, a system where safety is paramount must be designed in a way that if it does utilise outside services, they are an addition – not integral. This in turn means that we can thoroughly test and approve our own devices, and be certain that we can predict the outcomes of events such as that experienced this week. Furthermore, we can follow this chain of thought down through the loss of each critical service that feeds our system.

Loss of mains power? The battery backup will kick in and inform the end user what has happened.
Lost internet access? App connectivity and remote reporting may be affected.
Lost your entire internal network? Some communication between systems may be affected – but the core of each system will still work – and warnings will be automatically issued. 

At its core, we design our systems so that they will continue to keep people safe by informing people where help is needed most – regardless of what is happening in the outside world.

However, there will always be unforeseen circumstances or "black swan events." That's why our closed protocol is designed with built-in contingencies and a dedicated team of maintenance staff on call 24/7. With the right hardware and expertise, we can quickly address and resolve any issues that may arise. This ensures minimal risk to safety and minimal impact on the day-to-day operations of your facility. Our closed protocol system allows us to act swiftly and efficiently without further burdening your maintenance staff, keeping your system running smoothly even in the face of unexpected challenges.

In a world increasingly reliant on interconnected technology, the resilience and reliability of closed protocol systems provide an unmatched safeguard, ensuring that even in the face of widespread disruptions, critical operations continue seamlessly, maintaining safety and functionality when it matters most.

If you're interested in installing Pinpoint's System in your workplace, get in touch with us here.

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