CrowdStrike file update bricks Windows machines around the world

[Notes_Norton]

On 7/23/2024 at 1:22 PM, bitflipper said:

people who wouldn't actually understand it if it was explained to them

That would be me. I know about a lot of things, but the only coding I've ever done is the simplest, BASIC and HTML. In other word, baby steps. I leave the rest to the experts and don't believe everything I read on the web.

 

[Starship Krupa]

Not that I'm against the use of anti-malware software, but IME, measures taken to combat malware have done worse harm to the end user experience than actual malware.

I'm ever fascinated by the fear of something causing more damage than the thing itself.

My favorite case: in 2002, Americans stayed away from airline travel in favor of automobile travel, this being of course due to the Sept. 11 tragedy the previous year.

Due to the relative safety of car travel vs. plane travel, more Americans were killed on the highways as a result of the shift than were killed in the Sept. 11 event itself.

It's good to take precautions, but it's also good to take caution about taking precautions.

[craigb]

26 minutes ago, Notes_Norton said:

That would be me. I know about a lot of things, but the only coding I've ever done is the simplest, BASIC and HTML. In other word, baby steps. I leave the rest to the experts and don't believe everything I read on the web.

 

Yes! ?

[craigb]

5 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

Not that I'm against the use of anti-malware software, but IME, measures taken to combat malware have done worse harm to the end user experience than actual malware.

I'm ever fascinated by the fear of something causing more damage than the thing itself.

And, most of us old nerds know, many of the old computer viruses probably originated with the anti-virus companies!

[Promidi]

6 hours ago, bitflipper said:

And that is why I have no Pace-protected plugins on my machine. 

Later versions removed the “TKPD.sys” driver.  Also, the later iLok installers always check for later versions now.

[bitflipper]

18 hours ago, Promidi said:

Later versions removed the “TKPD.sys” driver.

Yes. It now runs as a service - that most user are probably unaware exists. Still an improvement.

 

[kitekrazy1]

How a cheap barcode scanner helped fix CrowdStrike'd Windows PCs in a flash

https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/25/crowdstrike_remediation_with_barcode_scanner/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=top-article

 

 

[bitflipper]

Clever! Same applies to devices that read magstripes, like the ones on the backs of credit cards.

I used to have a keyboard with a built-in magstripe reader. We used it at trade shows to log the badges of visitors to our booth. I wrote the software for that, so naturally I first sat down with the reader to see what's written on the backside of credit cards, hotel room keys and employee time cards.

Made me realize how insecure programmable hotel room keys are, since they can be easily duplicated. Ever have your hotel room key not work, requiring a visit to the front desk to have it reprogrammed? You'd probably stood too close to a magnetic field, such as a transformer. Or had a souvenir fridge magnet in your pocket next to the room key. Or you were a mischievous tech geek who likes to experiment. 

[craigb]

37 minutes ago, bitflipper said:

Or you were a mischievous tech geek who likes to experiment. 

 

 

[kitekrazy1]

3 hours ago, bitflipper said:

Clever! Same applies to devices that read magstripes, like the ones on the backs of credit cards.

I used to have a keyboard with a built-in magstripe reader. We used it at trade shows to log the badges of visitors to our booth. I wrote the software for that, so naturally I first sat down with the reader to see what's written on the backside of credit cards, hotel room keys and employee time cards.

Made me realize how insecure programmable hotel room keys are, since they can be easily duplicated. Ever have your hotel room key not work, requiring a visit to the front desk to have it reprogrammed? You'd probably stood too close to a magnetic field, such as a transformer. Or had a souvenir fridge magnet in your pocket next to the room key. Or you were a mischievous tech geek who likes to experiment. 

Amazing how keys still work.  Tech for the sake of tech is stupid.

As I've gotten older I despise most of it.

[jackson white]

and now there's this.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c903e793w74o

Y2K was supposed to be the apocalyptic event of the century, perhaps Y2.024K was just biding it's time..

(ya, something to consider for project backup in the cloud, as we already knew...)

Edited July 30 by jackson white
and another thing...

[craigb]

30 minutes ago, jackson white said:

Y2K was supposed to be the apocalyptic event of the century, ...

I was contracted to Verizon Wireless for seven years from 1996 to 2003 and we hired a lot of older/retired/semi-retired programmers around this time to help fix the so-called Y2K problem.

However, I was far more concerned about February 29th!  You see, I'm the one who wrote the leap year logic code for them and it's not as simple as most people think!

Every fourth year is a leap year, unless the year is divisible by ten but NOT by 100!  So, while 1980 was NOT a leap year, 2000 was!  Other companies ran into issues at the end of February, but we didn't! 

Not confusing at all. eh?

[bitflipper]

Y2K was a gift to coders around the world. I, with a partner, worked for three years completely rewriting the property tax system for a local county. Three years of 80+ hour weeks - at 90 bucks an hour for each of us.

Shaking that kind of money out of a county budget was only possible due to popular culture overhyping the coming apocalypse. Remember a TV show called "Millennium"? Its whole premise was airplanes falling out of the sky and elevators dropping at midnight. Of course, software devs already knew about the problem and had actually been working on it since the 80's. But I was careful not to seem too flippant about it, lest I inadvertently dispel their fears. That fear made my mortgage payments for three years.

Unfortunately, because we all survived Y2K, nobody's taking very real existential threats seriously now. WW3 won't start with a surprise nuke attack. It will begin with a massive power outage.

[craigb]

I have fond memories of 1999!  I made $310k from Verizon that year (and did some things that made them millions, so it was a win/win)!  That's about $580k in today's money.

But, I also averaged 63 hours / week for ten solid years and never had a full week off for vacation during that entire time (1994-2003)!  Can you say BURNOUT??!

Oh, well...

[jackson white]

17 hours ago, bitflipper said:

WW3 won't start with a surprise nuke attack. It will begin with a massive power outage.

are you writing scripts for Netflix now?

[craigb]

30 minutes ago, jackson white said:

are you writing scripts for Netflix now?

He's just paying attention.

[bitflipper]

10 hours ago, jackson white said:

are you writing scripts for Netflix now?

Why? Is that the premise of a current show on Netflix? I'd like to see that. 

Of course, any fictional treatment will get it all wrong...the key to initiate the malware will be a physical thing that spies shoot each other over and one heroic CIA agent will destroy just as an LED countdown timer has 1 second remaining. While sweating over whether to cut the red or black wire - finally impressing his hot female boss who had to have him retired after a bad psych eval.

[Grem]

20 hours ago, bitflipper said:

finally impressing his hot female boss who had to have him retired after a bad psych eval.

Yep, you need to be writing scripts for movies. Or even games!!