There are two ways the fallout from the Crowdstrike troubles might affect people even if their computers didn’t ‘die’.
First, some organizations are still recovering or are dependent on businesses that are recovering. Keep that in mind if there are problems with a company. (On the other hand, some organizations might use Crowdstrike as an excuse for other troubles.)
Only PC and servers managed by organizations with Crowdstrike were in trouble, according to Microsoft there were 8 million affected machines. Many of those machines were in key infrastructure roles for airlines, online payments etc so the effect spread way beyond a simple computer count.
Beware phishing emails
Second, Criminals and hackers are lining up to take advantage of the confusion.
Be on special lookout for fake emails, maybe claiming that an account has to be reset due to Crowdstrike or directing to another site.
Happily, Crowdstrike isn’t sold to consumers so individuals and families weren’t affected. Windows Defender, which comes with all modern Windows is all you need.
Microsoft doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to the reliability of their own updates. Luckily, there’s been nothing as catastrophic as the Crowdstrike mess but plenty of Windows and Office customers have had to deal with faulty updates from Microsoft itself.
The whole unpleasantness does underline the dilemma for all Windows and Office users. Do you update immediately and risk there being a bug in the update (which Microsoft has done many, many times). Or delay installing updates and risk being infected via a security bug patched in that update. Why updating Office is like Star Trek’s Kobayashi Maru
Microsoft’s sales opportunity
Crowdstrike is a rival to Microsoft’s own Microsoft Defender for Endpoint/Cloud Apps for organizations. You can be sure Microsoft will be using this to push sales of their own product.
Is Europe to blame?
The Crowdstrike crash was caused by a simple beginners flaw in their update which pointed to the wrong memory location. Because there was nothing in that memory spot, the program crashed. That error was in the ‘kernel’ or foundation level of Windows upon which all other programs rely. If the foundation fails, the whole Windows ‘building’ collapses.
While Microsoft isn’t directly to blame for the Crowdstrike crash, there are folks who suggest that Windows should be more resilient to kernel intrusions. Apple blocked macOS kernel access in 2020.
Which might explain why some Microsofties are blaming the European Union for these troubles. Back in 2009, Microsoft agreed with the EU to make the kernel level available to third-party security companies. The alternative would have been a Microsoft monopoly on selling security add-ons for Windows.
Many IT departments will be looking at their over-reliance on a single system and perhaps investing in more diverse, hybrid, systems that can better withstand failures. But that’s both difficult and costly, so don’t hold your breath.
Why updating Office is like Star Trek’s Kobayashi Maru
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Combined ‘one-click’ update for both Windows and Office
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