Worldwide Windows outage

[Butch]

It hit us hard at work an entire (so far) 16 hour period of lost production.

I've used a link from "the Register" and the live feed from the BBC

For anyone who might be unaware:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cnk4jdwp49et

https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/19/crowdstrike_falcon_sensor_bsod_incident/

Flights disrupted, NHS disrupted, logistics disrupted along with supply chains, banks and numerous other areas of Industry.

From what I can gather (in my non techie way) is that it was a patch or update which went a bit wrong. Home PC's likely to be unaffected as it is a retail product used by large Companies and organisations.

[boydeste]

Absolute nightmare,  even the F1 teams were screwed for a while too.

[Bazle]

56 minutes ago, Butch said:

From what I can gather (in my non techie way) is that it was a patch or update which went a bit wrong. 

Perhaps an appropriate subject for your Conspiracy Theories section. Is this, and other similar recent problems, Russia fighting back?

[Freee!!]

17 minutes ago, Bazle said:

Perhaps an appropriate subject for your Conspiracy Theories section. Is this, and other similar recent problems, Russia fighting back?

Just an enormous screw up by CrowdStrike. The solution is pretty easy but requires manual intervention (and most corporate users don't have the necessary authorizations at their work machines).

[coxyhog]

Was going to have a beer with a mate this evening....he's stuck overnight in Corfu.

You'd think well that's ok but I think he's got his missus & 2 daughters with him.....

[Bazle]

9 minutes ago, Freee!! said:

Just an enormous screw up by CrowdStrike. 

That's what they have told us, but is it the truth? 

[Freee!!]

3 minutes ago, Bazle said:

That's what they have told us, but is it the truth? 

As far as I can determine, it is. The cause is one single file that is faulty (easy enough to test, rename it and the problem disappears) and there is only one way it could have found its way to so many computers world wide.

The wife of a good friend did have this problem on her work computer while trying to work from home. 

[gs joe]

Glad I kept my abacus

[Bazle]

1 hour ago, gs joe said:

Glad I kept my abacus

Useful keeping cash as well! My local big supermarket was cash only this morning, which resulted in a huge queue at the ATM around the corner. 

[fygjam]

 

[fygjam]

2 hours ago, coxyhog said:

Was going to have a beer with a mate this evening....he's stuck overnight in Corfu.

You'd think well that's ok but I think he's got his missus & 2 daughters with him.....

He's been crowdstruck!

 

[Derek Dangleberries]

I found out about it yesterday because I think that it was first experienced in Aus whilst you lot were still in bed.

The first thing I looked at was the "Wheels Up" thread but I don't think we had anybody on here heading to the airport ....

[forcebwithu]

4 hours ago, Bazle said:

That's what they have told us, but is it the truth? 

Not everything is a conspiracy and most times the reasons for a screw up are what's reported. In this case coders screwed up an OS update.

[Freee!!]

3 minutes ago, forcebwithu said:

Not everything is a conspiracy and most times the reasons for a screw up are what's reported. In this case coders screwed up an OS update.

Not even an OS update, an update for a security (anti virus) program.

[forcebwithu]

6 hours ago, Freee!! said:

Just an enormous screw up by CrowdStrike. The solution is pretty easy but requires manual intervention (and most corporate users don't have the necessary authorizations at their work machines).

 

1 hour ago, Freee!! said:

Not even an OS update, an update for a security (anti virus) program.

I hadn't heard of CrowdStrike before.

What is CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm behind a global tech outage?

Companies across several industries including airlines, banking and media were hit on Friday by a global tech outage tied to Microsoft's (MSFT.O), opens new tab Azure cloud platform and a software issue at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (CRWD.O), opens new tab.
 

The issue impacted computers running the Windows operating system and CrowdStrike software. CrowdStrike said it was working with impacted customers and had deployed a fix for the issue, which stemmed from an update it issued for Windows users.

 

Here are a few key details about CrowdStrike:

WHAT IS CrowdStrike?

CrowdStrike offers cloud-based security solutions to businesses. Its Falcon tool - one of the reasons for the outage on Friday - identifies unusual behavior and vulnerabilities to protect computer systems from threats such as malware.
...

[Freee!!]

4 minutes ago, forcebwithu said:

I hadn't heard of CrowdStrike before.

You aren't the only one, was new for me as well. However, I know a bit about computers and software and I am a member of a tech oriented Dutch forum. That forum provided me pretty quickly was all necessary info.

[fygjam]

1 hour ago, forcebwithu said:

Not everything is a conspiracy and most times the reasons for a screw up are what's reported. In this case coders screwed up an OS update.

 

1 hour ago, Freee!! said:

Not even an OS update, an update for a security (anti virus) program.

So hands up the person who said "but I only changed one line and it shouldn't have had any effect."

 

[Zeb]

Andy Davey

[Zeb]

matt

[Zeb]

“We apologise for any technical difficulties you may be experiencing. Our engineers are working on a solution as we speak. Please stand by.”

anonymous

[forcebwithu]

16 minutes ago, fygjam said:

So hands up the person who said "but I only changed one line and it shouldn't have had any effect."

Local reaction to CrowdStrike computer outage: “Somebody dropped the ball”
...
A faulty code in the update files resulted in one of the most widespread tech outages in recent years for companies using Microsoft’s Windows operating system. The outage resulted in Microsoft users computers display what it commonly referred to as the “blue screen of death.”

“It’s being fixed now and it will be cleared up. But, it certainly wreaked havoc while it was happening,” Johnson said.

CrowdStrike provides antivirus software to Microsoft for use in Windows devices. Johnson the company was attempting to perform what is usually routine upgrade to its security system.

“(CrowdStrike) pushed out an update that had a glitch in it and the glitch actually kept the computer from booting up Windows,” Johnson said. “If your company used CrowdStrike and your computer used Microsoft, it caused the ‘blue screen of death’ to come up.”

Johnson said computer systems using Mac or Linix were not affected.

“It’s a CrowdStrike problem. It’s up to CrowdStrike to provide the fix,”

Johnson says it could be weeks before it’s known how the security upgrade became defected.

“Typically before you push out an update, or a patch as it’s called in the industry, it undergoes beta testing, so they test the heck out it,” Johnson said.

“Somebody dropped the ball and let this bad file get out.”
...

[thegrogmonster]

I imagine the update would have been subjected to several peer reviews.

[Freee!!]

40 minutes ago, thegrogmonster said:

I imagine the update would have been subjected to several peer reviews.

Peer reviews don't catch everything (been there, done that, got the scars) and the update should have been tested.

[forcebwithu]

33 minutes ago, Freee!! said:

Peer reviews don't catch everything (been there, done that, got the scars) and the update should have been tested.

Given the millions of computers affected by the coding error, if only they had tested the patch on one sandboxed computer inhouse they probably would have caught the error.

[Freee!!]

4 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

Given the millions of computers affected by the coding error, if only they had tested the patch on one sandboxed computer inhouse they probably would have caught the error.

AMEN!