Yet another Major global tech outage....Microsoft!

TennVet said:
..It seems the airline schedules operate in a fragile network with far reaching impacts in flight delays and cancellations.
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Planes themselves are basically flying computers. Planes keep pilots informed about storms, other aircraft in their path, onboard fires, engine malfunctions, "you're about to hit a mountain", etc. There's also auto-pilot and landing vectors and communications with air traffic control.

Losing those features can potentially, or even most definitely, result in a perilous flight. That's the reason for the delays and cancellations.
 

Trish said:
I wonder what they expected to find on them! I use exernal hard drives to back-up all the photos I want to keep, I have never considered them being stolen :unsure:
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Thieves want your data, financial documents, personal information...just like online 'hacker' theft.

We should be talking about encryption. I'm not sure about the Windows operating system, but with my Linux systems the entire physical drive that the operating system is installed on is encrypted. Let me Google, I'll be right back.

...I'm back.

Linux data at rest encryption

Windows Device Encryption
 

CrowdStrike boss sees his £3.4bn fortune plummet by £100k and £9bn wiped off his firm as his system sends the world into Microsoft outage crisis​

  • The man in charge of the company behind a worldwide IT meltdown todaylost nearly £250million of his personal fortune - as his firm admitted responsibility for the outage that halted GP appointments and brought British airports to a standstill.

    George Kurtz is the cofounder and CEO of CrowdStrike, the Texas-based firm powering cybersecurity for some of the world's leading companies and global financial institutions.

    But the company has issued a grovelling apology after a faulty update pushed out to Windows customers took their systems down in a 'digital pandemic' - crippling airlines, airports, broadcasters, the NHS and investment platforms.

    The grievous error wiped £9billion from CrowdStrike's value and $320million (£247m) from Mr Kurtz's personal wealth; he owns a five per cent stake in the firm and the dip represents a loss of a tenth of his $3.4billion net worth.

    Crowdstrike is reported to have a 24 per cent share of the 'endpoint security' market - providing software that protects business computers from outside cyberattacks - meaning hundreds of millions of computers were likely affected by the issue.

    Mr Kurtz, was initially criticised for his 'corporate-speak' response to the incident, but later used a TV interview to say he was 'deeply sorry' - before warning it would take 'some time' for systems to be fully restored.

    The issue was caused by a 'buggy' security update to Falcon, an antivirus product sold by the firm that protects Microsoft Windows devices from cyberattacks.
87549515-13652167-image-a-10_1721412734135.jpg


The error crippled systems running Microsoft Windows - which CrowdStrike's Falcon software requires deep access to in order to detect cyberattacks

87541621-13652167-This_graph_shows_just_some_of_the_companies_that_have_been_affec-a-5_1721411109879.jpg

Speaking to NBC's Today Show, Mr Kurtz, said there had been a 'negative interaction' between the update and Microsoft's operating system

He added 'it could be some time for some systems' to return to normal as they would not 'just automatically recover'. Microsoft suggested to some customers to reboot their computers up to 15 times to resolve the error, 404 Media reported.

It represents a sorry chapter in CrowdStrike's otherwise highly successful story - as it has collected an enviable list of customers in its short 13 year history who could now be rethinking their cybersecurity provider.
Tech blunder boss loses £250MILLION as CrowdStrike sheds £9bn
 

hollydolly said:

CrowdStrike boss sees his £3.4bn fortune plummet by £100k and £9bn wiped off his firm as his system sends the world into Microsoft outage crisis​

  • The man in charge of the company behind a worldwide IT meltdown todaylost nearly £250million of his personal fortune - as his firm admitted responsibility for the outage that halted GP appointments and brought British airports to a standstill.

    George Kurtz is the cofounder and CEO of CrowdStrike, the Texas-based firm powering cybersecurity for some of the world's leading companies and global financial institutions.

    But the company has issued a grovelling apology after a faulty update pushed out to Windows customers took their systems down in a 'digital pandemic' - crippling airlines, airports, broadcasters, the NHS and investment platforms.

    The grievous error wiped £9billion from CrowdStrike's value and $320million (£247m) from Mr Kurtz's personal wealth; he owns a five per cent stake in the firm and the dip represents a loss of a tenth of his $3.4billion net worth.

    Crowdstrike is reported to have a 24 per cent share of the 'endpoint security' market - providing software that protects business computers from outside cyberattacks - meaning hundreds of millions of computers were likely affected by the issue.

    Mr Kurtz, was initially criticised for his 'corporate-speak' response to the incident, but later used a TV interview to say he was 'deeply sorry' - before warning it would take 'some time' for systems to be fully restored.

    The issue was caused by a 'buggy' security update to Falcon, an antivirus product sold by the firm that protects Microsoft Windows devices from cyberattacks.
87549515-13652167-image-a-10_1721412734135.jpg


The error crippled systems running Microsoft Windows - which CrowdStrike's Falcon software requires deep access to in order to detect cyberattacks
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Took courage to take responsibility so quickly. That doesn't happen very often....like almost never. There's usually finger-pointing and a circular blame game.

I hope his company recovers.
 
Luckily I've seen absolutely no impact. My online banking is fully up, with no notices.
I haven't been out shopping and tried a card though.
Linux wins again and I'll keep it on my desktop
My Windows laptop will stay in the drawer until this crisis blows over
 
Murrmurr said:
Planes themselves are basically flying computers. Planes keep pilots informed about storms, other aircraft in their path, onboard fires, engine malfunctions, "you're about to hit a mountain", etc. There's also auto-pilot and landing vectors and communications with air traffic control.

Losing those features can potentially, or even most definitely, result in a perilous flight. That's the reason for the delays and cancellations.
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Where did this information come from?
 
HoneyNut said:
The silver lining is that they'll learn to prevent that in the future, and hopefully learn how to recover from similar experiences. And I'd much rather accidentally cause a problem that we can fix, rather than have a hostile organization do it and then no one would know what happened.

I'm impressed that Crowdstrike owned up to it, though most likely they were still monitoring as they sent updates so probably was obvious to anyone who was involved. I wonder how the file got corrupted, for them not to have caught it seems like the corruption must have been from a very last step, like maybe encrypting the file to transmit it.

You'd think they could have sent the update to just a few large companies and then monitored them before sending it everywhere.
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But aren’t updates so common that they are kind of automated? I know nothing about how that works, but if speed is the key to safety from cyberthreats, and it seems that might be one important aspect to it, then maybe they skip over a testing step and just go straight to auto-updates?

It’s also rather standard practice in the software industry, right? Software writers accept there will be bug fixes ahead, forever and always. Thus, is Windows 45, for example, so many years away? LOL. Or maybe they will revamp the whole thing at Windows 39? We will see.

Apple OS in twenty years will be called “Mendota” or “Arcata”. (Those are two of the poorest cities in CA. I figure Apple will cycle through all the very nice, expensive places and in 20 years, name the updates after some poor towns.)
 
Most likely it had to do with the Ground stuff. Airplanes do not fly with Microsoft browsers. Most likely it was Dollar oriented
and had to do with money transfers. 1000 takeoffs is infinitesimal considering the 150,000 or more take off a day globally.
 
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Naturally said:
Luckily I've seen absolutely no impact. My online banking is fully up, with no notices.
I haven't been out shopping and tried a card though.
Linux wins again and I'll keep it on my desktop
My Windows laptop will stay in the drawer until this crisis blows over
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My main computer "Apple iMac" wins again also. "An Apple A Day, Keeps Microsoft Away."
I'll be installing Linux sometime in the next few months on my Windows HP Desktop since I can't upgrade to Windows 11.
I hate "Patch Tuesdays" for Windows. Install the updates and pray your computer works right after reboot.
 
Just this past week I had to slick my Windows laptop and reinstall Win11 after an update caused erratic behavior.
Don't want to go through that again any time soon. Only last night finally got everything tweaked back in.

Basically the only reason I even have Windows anything is because it's easier to screen cast what ever is on the computer, to the TV wirelessly. Screen casting is easy peasy in Windows and not so much with Linux where the easiest way to do it is with a (super long in my case) HDMI cable.

During college football season, I use the Windows Screen Cast feature to watch games from the Internet, that my TV doesn't receive.
 
I think I got hit with that. I had just plugged in my laptop after un plugging for a t storm and already slow to boot up I got a blue screen with something about a kernel. Disconnected the battery and restarted no problem. Heard in the past if you think you are getting a virus disconnect immediately/physically if you have to.

I probably interrupted that update.
 
Microsoft products could have been built to be rugged and very secure out of the box, so they did not need so many security updates and bandaids. Bill Gates decided not to build reliable and safe products. My opinion is that is a little bit evil.

Been programming for over 35 years, so I have had a front row seat.
 
papa tiger said:
Most likely it had to do with the Ground stuff. Airplanes do not fly with Microsoft browsers. Most likely it was Dollar oriented
and had to do with money transfers. 1000 takeoffs is infinitesimal considering the 150,000 or more take off a day globally.
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Planes use satellite connections for all in-flight coms; plane to pilot, pilot to pilot, and pilot to ground.
 
I found this by searchin.

It’s important to note that airline communications are not solely dependent on Microsoft satellite technology. Airlines use a combination of various communication systems, including satellite-based and ground-based technologies, to ensure reliable and efficient communication during flights. Recently, there was a global cyber outage affecting major U.S. carriers, including American Airlines, which led to ground stops due to communication issues3. However, this outage was not specific to Microsoft satellite technology but rather a broader disruption affecting multiple airlines. Overall, while Microsoft’s cloud services contribute significantly to airline operations, the industry relies on a diverse range of communication technologies to ensure safe and seamless travel.
 
ProTruckDriver said:
My main computer "Apple iMac" wins again also. "An Apple A Day, Keeps Microsoft Away."
I'll be installing Linux sometime in the next few months on my Windows HP Desktop since I can't upgrade to Windows 11.
I hate "Patch Tuesdays" for Windows. Install the updates and pray your computer works right after reboot.
Click to expand...
I am now considering if I should get another Apple computer/laptop rather than Windows. I hate all the bloatware that is usually pre-installed and the constant updates on Windows. Do you use any sort of anti virus software on your iMac?
 
MaxHarris said:
Never mind banks and bleedin' airports being affected....I've just checked Ladbrokes bookies site to get odds for certain football game tomorrow and THEIR bloomin site is down.........Harumph!!!!!!!!
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Now here's the upshot.....goes down to my usual bookies this morning (Ladbrokes), shop open but they're unable to pay out any winning bets from before the computer crash (I have 2 winners from last Saturday) and I'm unable to put on bets for today. only reason they're open is because they have several fruit machines in the shop and they're working. Luckily there is another bookies next door (William Hill) so I got my bets on in there as they haven't been affected. What a palaver....Technology eh ? Harumph!
 
ProTruckDriver said:
My main computer "Apple iMac" wins again also. "An Apple A Day, Keeps Microsoft Away."
I'll be installing Linux sometime in the next few months on my Windows HP Desktop since I can't upgrade to Windows 11.
I hate "Patch Tuesdays" for Windows. Install the updates and pray your computer works right after reboot.
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me too... I have a Mac...desktop
 

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