Linux 1
Windows 0

'Global cyber outage grounds flights, hits banks, telecoms, media'

<https://www.reuters.com/technology/global-cyber-outage-grounds-flights-hits-media-financial-telecoms-2024-07-19/>

'uly 19 (Reuters) - A software update wreaked havoc on computer systems
globally on Friday, grounding flights, opens new tab, forcing some
broadcasters off air and hitting services from banking to healthcare.
An update to a product offered by global cyberscurity firm CrowdStrike
(CRWD.O), opens new tab appeared to be the trigger, affecting customers
using Microsoft's (MSFT.O), opens new tab Windows Operating System.
Microsoft said later on Friday the issue had been fixed.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said on social media platform X that the
company was "actively working with customers impacted by a defect found
in a single content update for Windows hosts" and that a fix was being
deployed.
"This is not a security incident or cyberattack," Kurtz said in the
post.
Early on Friday, major U.S. airlines - American Airlines (AAL.O), opens
new tab, Delta Airlines (DAL.N), opens new tab and United Airlines
(UAL.O), opens new tab - grounded flights, while other carriers and
airports around the world reported delays and disruptions.
Banks and financial services companies from Australia to India and
Germany warned customers of disruptions and traders across markets spoke
of problems with executing transaction.
"We are having the mother of all global market outages," one trader
said.
In Britain, booking systems used by doctors were offline, multiple
reports posted on X by medical officials said, while Sky News, one of
the country's major news broadcasters was off air, apologising for being
unable to transmit live, and soccer club Manchester United said on X
that it had to postpone a scheduled release of tickets.
Microsoft's cloud unit Azure said it was aware of the issue that
impacted virtual machines running Windows OS and the CrowdStrike Falcon
agent getting stuck in a "restarting state," amid an ongoing global
outage.
"We're aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from
a third-party software platform. We anticipate a resolution is
forthcoming," a Microsoft spokesperson said.
Spain's Aena reports computer systems 'incident' at all Spanish airports
Passengers wait at Barajas Airport, as Spanish airport operator Aena on
Friday reported a computer systems "incident" at all Spanish airports
which may cause flight delays, in Madrid, Spain July 19, 2024.
REUTERS/Elena Rodriguez Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
In an alert to clients issued at 0530 GMT on Friday, CrowdStrike said
its "Falcon Sensor" software was causing Microsoft Windows to crash and
display a blue screen, known informally as the "Blue Screen of Death".
It also shared a manual workaround to rectify the issue.
Over half of Fortune 500 companies used CrowdStrike software, the U.S.
firm said in a promotional video this year.
"This is a a very, very uncomfortable illustration of the fragility of
the world’s core Internet infrastructure," said Ciaran Martin, Professor
at Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government and former head of
the UK National Cyber Security Centre.
The outages rippled far and wide.
Airports in Singapore, Hong Kong and India said the outage meant some
airlines were having to check in passengers manually.
Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, one of Europe's busiest, said it was
affected, while airline Iberia said it had been operating manually at
airports until its electronic check-in counters and online check-ins
were reactivated. It said there had been some delays but no flight
cancellations.
Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA), opens new tab said its operations were
disrupted.
The Dutch foreign affairs ministry told Dutch press agency ANP it had
been affected. A spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
While there were reports of companies gradually restoring their
services, analysts weighed the potential of what one called the biggest
ever outage in the industry and the broader economy.
"IT security tools are all designed to ensure that companies can
continue to operate in the worst-case scenario of a data breach, so to
be the root cause of a global IT outage is an unmitigated disaster,"
said Ajay Unni, CEO of StickmanCyber, one of Australia's largest
cybersecurity services companies.
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John Smyth wrote this copyrighted missive and expects royalties:

> Linux 1
> Windows 0
>
> 'Global cyber outage grounds flights, hits banks, telecoms, media'
>
> <https://www.reuters.com/technology/global-cyber-outage-grounds-flights-hits-media-financial-telecoms-2024-07-19/>
>
> <snipped poorly formatted description of Microsoft/CrowdStrike issue>

I got a kick out of the teevee news guy saying "Mac and Linux are not
affected".

:-D

Maybe they should rename it "CloudStrike".

:-D

--
You will not be elected to public office this year.

John Smyth wrote:
> Linux 1
> Windows 0

Apple 1

> 'Global cyber outage grounds flights, hits banks, telecoms, media'

Oh dear. I'm so skeered.

--
Siri Seal of Disavowal #000-001. Disavowed. Denied. @
'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' /|\
The Church of the Holey Apple .signature 3.2 / \
of Discordian Mysteries. This post insults Islam. Mohamed

Siri Cruise <chine.bleu@www.yahoo.com> wrote:
>John Smyth wrote:
>
>> Linux 1
>> Windows 0
>
>Apple 1

You do realize that Apple doesn't serve this market substantially?
Linux does, though.

--
Joel W. Crump

Amendment XIV
Section 1.

[...] No state shall make or enforce any law which shall
abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the
United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of
life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws.

Dobbs rewrites this, it is invalid precedent. States are
liable for denying needed abortions, e.g. TX.

On 19 Jul 2024, Siri Cruise <chine.bleu@www.yahoo.com> posted some
news:v7e3hi$32bp8$1@dont-email.me:

> John Smyth wrote:
>> Linux 1
>> Windows 0
>
> Apple 1
>
>> 'Global cyber outage grounds flights, hits banks, telecoms, media'
>
> Oh dear. I'm so skeered.

Wasn't "Windoze" per se, CrowdStrike cheap filippino and Asian indian
programmers strike again.

Stock price: CRWD (NASDAQ) $303.71 -39.33 (-11.47%)

Nothing really compared to the Linux failures at AT&T.

On Fri, 19 Jul 2024 07:40:12 -0400, John Smyth wrote:

> Linux 1
> Windows 0

Apparently you have to try rebooting your Windows machines over and
over until it manages to download and install the fix without crashing
<https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/07/crowdstrike-fixes-start-at-reboot-up-to-15-times-and-get-more-complex-from-there/>.

Make that

Linux 15
Dimdows 0

On 2024-07-19, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
> On Fri, 19 Jul 2024 07:40:12 -0400, John Smyth wrote:
>
>> Linux 1
>> Windows 0
>
> Apparently you have to try rebooting your Windows machines over and
> over until it manages to download and install the fix without crashing
><https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/07/crowdstrike-fixes-start-at-reboot-up-to-15-times-and-get-more-complex-from-there/>.
>
> Make that
>
> Linux 15
> Dimdows 0

Automatic updates, ANY automatic updated is a super bad and ignorant process to put in place.
In the real world of commercial computing, like mainframes and associated I/O, updates are first
tested in the sandbox and when deemed safe are deployed throughout the organization.
Right now the zOS people are cringing while reading this latest FUBAR.
Microsoft product or not, it's the change management of these various corporations that screwed
them.
My suspicion is a rogue employee letting bad code escape.

--
pothead
Joe Biden is the absolute WORST President Of the U.S. ever.
Nobody else is even close. Including Jimmy Carter.
Vote for ANYBODY but Joe Biden in 2024.

On Fri, 19 Jul 2024 23:01:40 -0000 (UTC), pothead wrote:

> My suspicion is a rogue employee letting bad code escape.

My suspicion is that the employee followed exactly the same rules they
were told to follow for the previous 100 updates, that worked just fine
those times.

This time, it didn’t.