Unless you've been 'Rip Vanwikiling' away your time since last Thursday of so, you've most likely heard about the disaster that was brought about by an update from CrowdStrike that paralyzed certain parts of the tech landscape.
CrowdStrike is a security vendor that many companies running Windows computers count on. The company helps protect its clients from malicious actors, usually through a product called Falcon. Unfortunately, when the company pushed out an update to clients on Friday, there was a bug in the code which was unknown when the update deployed. The result was that 1.8% of computers running Windows then crashed with the result being the feared 'Blue Screen of Death' which meant the computers wouldn't reboot. At this point in time, it's my understanding that the only way to fix the problem is to boot the affected machine into Safe Mode and then remove the update manually by finding the file, clicking on it, and then deleting it. Considering how many computers were affected, you know that the recovery process is going to be slow.
The problem caused all kinds of havoc. The most noted was probably the effect it had on the travel industry. Suddenly many airlines were unable to access their systems and the result was flights cancelled and travelers stranded... all over the place, with Delta Airlines being the worst affected. I was actually flying home to KC on Saturday from a lecture in Tennessee and I consider myself lucky to have made it to my destination. That day of my life is worth a blog post all on its own, but I'll save the you boring details for some other time. I happened to be flying American Airlines for that trip. They suffered some problems but nearly as severe as others.
Now, let's add to all of those troubles the fact that the moment the crash made headlines, into the void stepped the scammers. Why criminals always jump into these moments to make a quick buck is beyond my comprehension, but you can pretty much count on that happening. Recently Russia struck a children's hospital in Ukraine with a missile and within hours, there were fake websites asking for donations to help those affected. You can always count on the lowest level of humanity to try and take advantage of things.
Following that thread, there are now plenty of scammers attempting to profit from the CrowdStrike debacle. According to Wired (which is one of my favorite publications) there has been a massive effort to create “CrowdStrike Support” scams targeting the company's customers and anyone who might be impacted by the chaos." Please be aware of these types of websites, phone calls, etc and don't become a victim. The impact of this disaster continues to be felt and I certainly don't want any of you nice enough to read my ramblings on a regular basis to end up losing your hard earned cash on something like that.
Wired has a great article on this that I feel is worth the 3-5 minutes it takes to read it. Stay safe & keep your money safe too!
No comments:
Post a Comment