Reliance on digital data is unseen danger



For most people, the crash last week at the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York means very little. A glitch in the software that publishes the prices of stocks caused a failure that led Nasdaq to shut down for two hours, meaning thousands of US stocks could not be traded. One estimate suggested $5.7trillion in shares were locked up during that time.

In the real world, such stories have little effect on the minds of the public. The technical language of finance is a world away from the experience most people have with money. But as the 2008 global financial crisis showed, what happens with obscure financial instruments can have implications for ordinary shoppers in the malls.

Moreover, the same type of error that caused Nasdaq to shut down also led to other large companies losing money or having their services disrupted. The algorithms that run in the background of many major companies can go wrong and when they do, the knock-on effects can be catastrophic, especially as these algorithms can go wrong in fractions of a second.

In just the last 10 days, Google suffered a four-minute meltdown, Amazon went down for almost an hour and Microsoft's email servers had a glitch that took three days to resolve. These outages can seem small, but for those people who could not access their emails or personal documents, they are more than mere inconveniences.

What lies behind all these outages are two linked trends of the modern world. The first is the accumulation of Big Data - vast amounts of information about what we do and buy, where and how we travel, and a limitless number of other examples - and, second, the automation of responses based on that data. A majority of trades on Nasdaq are automated and tens of thousands are carried out every minute, without human oversight. On Amazon's website, products are recommended based on the aggregated opinions of tens of thousands of people.

That does not mean that such data or automation is inherently bad. The examination of such data can mean traffic flow improves and medical research is swifter. But it does point to a lesser-known reliance on computer networks and digital infrastructure that are as frail as other infrastructure. After all, if your electricity stops, you call the electricity company and they fix it. But who do you call if your email is inaccessible, or the software on your smartphone shuts down, or all your online photos are deleted? And what happens if that data can't be recovered?

Episode list:

Ep1: A recovery like no other- the unevenness of the economic recovery 

Ep2: PCR and jobs - the future of work - new trends and challenges 

Ep3: The recovery and global trade disruptions - globalisation post-pandemic 

Ep4: Inflation- services and goods - debt risks 

Ep5: Travel and tourism 

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Al Ghaf Honey

The Al Ghaf tree is a local desert tree which bears the harsh summers with drought and high temperatures. From the rich flowers, bees that pollinate this tree can produce delicious red colour honey in June and July each year

Sidr Honey

The Sidr tree is an evergreen tree with long and strong forked branches. The blossom from this tree is called Yabyab, which provides rich food for bees to produce honey in October and November. This honey is the most expensive, but tastiest

Samar Honey

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Engine: 1.5-litre turbo

Power: 181hp

Torque: 230Nm

Transmission: 6-speed automatic

Starting price: Dh79,000

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The specs

Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 620hp from 5,750-7,500rpm
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Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch auto
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The biog

Age: 23

Occupation: Founder of the Studio, formerly an analyst at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi

Education: Bachelor of science in industrial engineering

Favourite hobby: playing the piano

Favourite quote: "There is a key to every door and a dawn to every dark night"

Family: Married and with a daughter

Our legal columnist

Name: Yousef Al Bahar

Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994

Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers

Thank You for Banking with Us

Director: Laila Abbas

Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum

Rating: 4/5

The specs

Engine: 6.2-litre V8

Transmission: ten-speed

Power: 420bhp

Torque: 624Nm

Price: Dh325,125

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Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor

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arcus Ericsson (Sauber)

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The specs

Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol

Power: 154bhp

Torque: 250Nm

Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option 

Price: From Dh79,600

On sale: Now

Fanney Khan

Producer: T-Series, Anil Kapoor Productions, ROMP, Prerna Arora

Director: Atul Manjrekar

Cast: Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Rajkummar Rao, Pihu Sand

Rating: 2/5 

Secret Nation: The Hidden Armenians of Turkey
Avedis Hadjian, (IB Tauris)
 

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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
The specs

Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six

Power: 650hp at 6,750rpm

Torque: 800Nm from 2,500-4,000rpm

Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto

Fuel consumption: 11.12L/100km

Price: From Dh796,600

On sale: now