CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops • Hacker News Board

Re: CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops

#741

Post by glitchc » Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 5:37 PM UTC

frankohn wrote: post #478

The Windows ecosystem typically deployed in corporate PCs or workstations is often insecure, slow, and poorly implemented, resulting in ongoing issues visible to everyone. Examples include problems with malware, ransomware, and Windows botnets. In corporate environments, IT staff struggle to contain these issues using antivirus software, firewalls, and proxies. These security measures often slow down PCs significantl…

Windows is leagues ahead of MacOS in terms of granularity of permissions and remote management tools. It's not even close. That's mainly why enterprise IT prefers it to alternatives.

Re: CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops

#742

Post by kjkjadksj » Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 5:38 PM UTC

Renaud wrote: post #432

When you see the size if the impact across the world, the number of people who will die because hospital, emergency and logistics systems are down… You don’t need conventional war any more. State actors can just focus on targeting widely deployed “security systems” that will bring down whole economies and bring as much death and financial damage as a missile, while denying any involvement…

Given how obvious the vector is for targeting after its so widespread, stands reason to believe the same state actors would push phishing schemes and other such efforts in order to justify having a tool like crowdsrike used everywhere. We are focusing on the bear trap snapping shut here, but someone took the time to set up that trap right where we'd be stepping in the first place.

Re: CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops

#743

Post by chinathrow » Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 5:39 PM UTC

Yet their stock tanked only a couple of dollars. They (and their customers) should face some rather unpleasant lawsuits. If you let others own your systems, you should not be allowed to provide critical infrastructure.

Re: CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops

#744

Post by Ringz » Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 5:40 PM UTC

By chance, I watched a few episodes of 911 and kept thinking that it was all completely unrealistic nonsense. Then there's an episode where the entire emergency call system for LA goes down, and even though there were different reasons in the episode (a transformer fire), I couldn't have imagined that it was actually possible to completely disable the emergency call system (and what else) of a city.

Re: CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops

#745

Post by vel0city » Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 5:41 PM UTC

_yb2s wrote: post #682

Why are so many mission critical hardware connected systems connected to the internet at all or getting automatic updates? This is just basic IT common sense. You only do updates during a planned outage, after doing an easily reversible backup, or you have two redundant systems in rotation and update and test the spare first. Critical systems connected to things like medical equipment should have no internet connecti…

CrowdStrike let's you create update strategies and rollout groups.

This update bypassed all of those settings.

Re: CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops

#746

Post by nothercastle » Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 5:41 PM UTC

belter wrote: post #724

It's not the first time they pull something similar...1 month ago: "CrowdStrike bug maxes out 100% of CPU, requires Windows reboots" - https://www.thestack.technology/crowdstrike-bug-maxes-out-10... 75 Billion dollars valuation, CNBC Analysts praising the company this morning on how well the company is run!...When in reality they can't master the most basic of the phased deployment methodologies known for 20 years...…

The worst part is that nobody will be held accountable. A F up like this should wipe out the entire company but instead everyone will just shrug it off as an opposie a few low level employees will get punished and nothing will change.

Re: CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops

#747

Post by qwerty456127 » Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 5:42 PM UTC

WTF is CrowdStrike and why is it affecting so many people and companies? I've never heard of it before. And apparently it isn't anything relevant to all Windows users as it didn't affect any computer of any person I personally know.

Re: CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops

#748

Post by HaZeust » Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 5:43 PM UTC

jmcgough wrote: post #131

Took down our entire emergency department as we were treating a heart attack. 911 down for our state too. Nowhere for people to be diverted to because the other nearby hospitals are down. Hard to imagine how many millions of not billions of dollars this one bad update caused.

Yup - my mom went into the ER for stroke symptoms last night and was put under MRI. The MRI imaging could NOT be sent to the off-site radiologist and they had to come in -- turned out the MRI outputs weren't working at all.

We were discharged at midnight by the doctor, the nurse didn't come into our exam room to tell us until 4am. I can't imagine the mess this has caused.

Re: CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops

#749

Post by alexose » Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 5:45 PM UTC

belter wrote: post #724

It's not the first time they pull something similar...1 month ago: "CrowdStrike bug maxes out 100% of CPU, requires Windows reboots" - https://www.thestack.technology/crowdstrike-bug-maxes-out-10... 75 Billion dollars valuation, CNBC Analysts praising the company this morning on how well the company is run!...When in reality they can't master the most basic of the phased deployment methodologies known for 20 years...…

> This whole industry is depressing....

I'll take it a step further and say that every industry is depressing when it comes to computers at scale.

Rather than build efficient, robust, fault-tolerant, deterministic systems built for correctness, we somehow manage to do the exact opposite. We have zettabytes and exaflops at our fingertips, and yet, we somehow keep making things slower. Our user interfaces are noisier than ever, and our helpdesks are less helpful than they used to be.

Re: CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops

#750

Post by hnthrowaway0328 » Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 5:45 PM UTC

Renaud wrote: post #432

When you see the size if the impact across the world, the number of people who will die because hospital, emergency and logistics systems are down… You don’t need conventional war any more. State actors can just focus on targeting widely deployed “security systems” that will bring down whole economies and bring as much death and financial damage as a missile, while denying any involvement…

I always think it's easy for state actors to pull out this trick.

Considering PR review is usually done within the team. A state actor can simply insert a manager, a couple of senior developers and maybe a couple of junior developers into a large team to do the job. Push something in Friday so few people bother to check, gets approved by another implant and here you go.

All people can then leave leisurely.