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shadowkatOh, in reference to the friends locked post on Crowdstrike (it dealt with Crazy Workplace which was affected...)...here's the CNN article explaining what happened:
Global Outage due to Crowdstrike
"A global IT outage has swept major services worldwide, disrupting public transport links, delaying international flights and restricting operations for health care facilities and businesses.
Here’s what you need to know:
What is behind the outage? The outage appears to stem at least partly from a software update issued by Crowdstrike, on Microsoft Windows systems. The US cybersecurity firm told customers early Friday that engineers were addressing the problem, according to an advisory viewed by CNN. The issue is specific to Falcon, which is designed to protect files saved in the cloud."
[They sent a file to all the computers with MS Windows Operating Systems via the Cloud last night and the file, Falcon, had a critical flaw that caused the computers to constantly have to be rebooted when you started it. So basically instead of taking you to the log on or into your system, it just kept restarting or taking you to the blue page of death.]
"How long will the outage last? Microsoft said the “underlying cause” of the outage “has been fixed,” adding that residual impact is still affecting some services. “We’re conducting additional mitigations to provide relief,” the tech company said in a post on X. Some services have been restored, but others are still grappling with the disruptions."
[It lasts until someone deletes the file, which they did by putting a flash drive into the hard drive, and going in and manually deleting it. Or it automatically got fixed for some and rebooted. But most of us required the manual fix - ie. removing/deleting the update.]
"Who has been affected? Global banks, medical services and critical infrastructure have been impacted by the outage. Medical providers including the UK’s National Health Service, and one of Europe’s largest health facilities in northern Germany, have been stifled by IT delays. Meanwhile, banks, broadcasting outlets and supermarkets in Australia, New Zealand and the UK were affected, including ABC News and Sky News."
[Basically anyone who relies on Microsoft Windows Operating Systems via the Cloud. If you have Apple, Linux, or no computer at all - because you are a luddite, or you work remotely, or don't work on a computer or didn't need to go to a bank, plane, or DMV or somewhere that did? You were most likely oblivious. But rest assured if affected a lot of folks, and necessary functions across the board.]
"Airlines worst hit: Scenes emerged of flustered travelers filling the corridors of major airports on Friday, as US and other international carriers in Europe, Asia and the Middle East had to delay and cancel flights. There are around 110,000 scheduled commercial flights today worldwide, according to preliminary data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, shared with CNN. As of 6 a.m. ET, there were 1,390 canceled flights globally. That figure is growing."
[Weirdly, I saw none of this at the Air Train building. But the Air Train building was also very quiet this morning, and I barely saw any travelers until around 12:30 Pm today...so.]
"International response: The White House says it is “looking into” the disruption caused by Friday morning’s cyber outages. “We’re aware of the incident and are looking into the issue and impacts,” a White House National Security Council spokesperson told CNN. Meanwhile, the UK government held an emergency meeting to discuss the outage, Downing Street said, according to the UK’s PA Media news agency."
[Be happy you don't live in the UK? Independent on Computer Outtage
and ..
Blue Screen of Death in the UK
"Services began to come back online on Friday evening after an IT failure that wreaked havoc worldwide. But full recovery could take weeks, experts have said, after airports, healthcare services and businesses were hit by the “largest outage in history”.
Flights and hospital appointments were cancelled, payroll systems seized up and TV channels went off air after a botched software upgrade hit Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
It came from the US cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, and left workers facing a “blue screen of death” as their computers failed to start. Experts said every affected PC may have to be fixed manually, but as of Friday night some services started to recover.
As recovery continues, experts say the outage underscored concerns that many organizations are not well prepared to implement contingency plans when a single point of failure such as an IT system, or a piece of software within it, goes down. But these outages will happen again, experts say, until more contingencies are built into networks and organizations introduce better back-ups.
In the UK, Whitehall crisis officials were coordinating the response through the Cobra committee. Ministers were in touch with their sectors to tackle the fallout from the IT failure, and the transport secretary, Louise Haigh, said she was working “at pace with industry” after trains and flights were affected."
]
I know more about this than most - because I work for government infrastructure and they told me.
Global Outage due to Crowdstrike
"A global IT outage has swept major services worldwide, disrupting public transport links, delaying international flights and restricting operations for health care facilities and businesses.
Here’s what you need to know:
What is behind the outage? The outage appears to stem at least partly from a software update issued by Crowdstrike, on Microsoft Windows systems. The US cybersecurity firm told customers early Friday that engineers were addressing the problem, according to an advisory viewed by CNN. The issue is specific to Falcon, which is designed to protect files saved in the cloud."
[They sent a file to all the computers with MS Windows Operating Systems via the Cloud last night and the file, Falcon, had a critical flaw that caused the computers to constantly have to be rebooted when you started it. So basically instead of taking you to the log on or into your system, it just kept restarting or taking you to the blue page of death.]
"How long will the outage last? Microsoft said the “underlying cause” of the outage “has been fixed,” adding that residual impact is still affecting some services. “We’re conducting additional mitigations to provide relief,” the tech company said in a post on X. Some services have been restored, but others are still grappling with the disruptions."
[It lasts until someone deletes the file, which they did by putting a flash drive into the hard drive, and going in and manually deleting it. Or it automatically got fixed for some and rebooted. But most of us required the manual fix - ie. removing/deleting the update.]
"Who has been affected? Global banks, medical services and critical infrastructure have been impacted by the outage. Medical providers including the UK’s National Health Service, and one of Europe’s largest health facilities in northern Germany, have been stifled by IT delays. Meanwhile, banks, broadcasting outlets and supermarkets in Australia, New Zealand and the UK were affected, including ABC News and Sky News."
[Basically anyone who relies on Microsoft Windows Operating Systems via the Cloud. If you have Apple, Linux, or no computer at all - because you are a luddite, or you work remotely, or don't work on a computer or didn't need to go to a bank, plane, or DMV or somewhere that did? You were most likely oblivious. But rest assured if affected a lot of folks, and necessary functions across the board.]
"Airlines worst hit: Scenes emerged of flustered travelers filling the corridors of major airports on Friday, as US and other international carriers in Europe, Asia and the Middle East had to delay and cancel flights. There are around 110,000 scheduled commercial flights today worldwide, according to preliminary data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, shared with CNN. As of 6 a.m. ET, there were 1,390 canceled flights globally. That figure is growing."
[Weirdly, I saw none of this at the Air Train building. But the Air Train building was also very quiet this morning, and I barely saw any travelers until around 12:30 Pm today...so.]
"International response: The White House says it is “looking into” the disruption caused by Friday morning’s cyber outages. “We’re aware of the incident and are looking into the issue and impacts,” a White House National Security Council spokesperson told CNN. Meanwhile, the UK government held an emergency meeting to discuss the outage, Downing Street said, according to the UK’s PA Media news agency."
[Be happy you don't live in the UK? Independent on Computer Outtage
and ..
Blue Screen of Death in the UK
"Services began to come back online on Friday evening after an IT failure that wreaked havoc worldwide. But full recovery could take weeks, experts have said, after airports, healthcare services and businesses were hit by the “largest outage in history”.
Flights and hospital appointments were cancelled, payroll systems seized up and TV channels went off air after a botched software upgrade hit Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
It came from the US cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, and left workers facing a “blue screen of death” as their computers failed to start. Experts said every affected PC may have to be fixed manually, but as of Friday night some services started to recover.
As recovery continues, experts say the outage underscored concerns that many organizations are not well prepared to implement contingency plans when a single point of failure such as an IT system, or a piece of software within it, goes down. But these outages will happen again, experts say, until more contingencies are built into networks and organizations introduce better back-ups.
In the UK, Whitehall crisis officials were coordinating the response through the Cobra committee. Ministers were in touch with their sectors to tackle the fallout from the IT failure, and the transport secretary, Louise Haigh, said she was working “at pace with industry” after trains and flights were affected."
]
I know more about this than most - because I work for government infrastructure and they told me.
Re: Fun with computers
Date: 2024-07-20 01:23 pm (UTC)There's different levels of security. If you are on LJ? You aren't secure - that's Russia and they have different security guidelines. But Dreamwidth is a bit more secure. Why? They are selling that as part of the platform. It's also more under the radar, which helps. Twitter? Not that secure - although more than might think - since they are selling security as part of the platform. It depends on whether it is sold as part of the platform.
Gaming? I don't know about since not a gamer. But I'd guess that if it is sold as part of the package it is? The security is part of your computers operating system. Apple IOS is among the most secure out there - I've never had this issue with Apple, it's why a lot of people use Apple devices.
Browsers? Duck Duck Go - is possibly the most secure browser out there - it doesn't allow any tracking of what you are doing. Google - among the least secure of the browsers. Email - Google is better than Microsoft, but not by much.
It all depends on how secure you need to be? If you are a private PC user wandering about the Dark Net - then you need to equip your computer with VPN - a high security system. But if you are just wandering about the net? Then maybe not.
I have multiple security devices on my computers - this one now - has an ad blocker, a tracking blocker, data blockers, etc.
And Crowdstrike's job is to ensure a high level of security. If they were doing what you believe they are doing? This wouldn't have happened. It wasn't a hack, it was a flaw in a security patch that they sent out. They send out updates to security systems overnight to combat potential threats. Individual users usually have to update their computers to ensure these are in them unless they opt for automatic updates, but major systems get automatically updated.
Re: Fun with computers
Date: 2024-07-20 02:17 pm (UTC)Re: Fun with computers
Date: 2024-07-20 03:37 pm (UTC)