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Most of the systems affected are back working, but the remainder still accounts for a rather staggering 250,000 PCs and servers. My guess is these are the hardest hit and are either physically difficult to access or encrypted and might need to have the drive replaced and rebuilt from scratch.
Oh, the Uber Eats gift card debacle has been resolved. It's still a debacle, but apparently the cards that were sent out are now actually redeemable.
So why is the European Commission to blame? Let's get technical.
The core of an operating system is its kernel. This is the set of programs that provide its basic operations and core security. Obviously this is the most important part of the OS, and the part that you want to protect the most. Preferably, as the maker of the operating system, you don't want anyone to have direct access to the kernel.
Linux and Apple Mac do not allow access to the kernel, not even for anti-virus and anti-malware applications. They have a framework that allows those sorts of programs to run and defend the kernel, but not actually link into it. Thus, they were completely unaffected by the ClownStrike event.
But because of Microsoft's overwhelming market domination and ubiquity, the EC didn't like that everyone was banned from kernel access for their third-party software for things like malware and virus protection and required that Microsoft literally and actually break their security model to allow such kernel access. The alternative was that they couldn't sell Windows user or server software in Europe, and there was no way that was going to happen. So Microsoft broke the security protections that Windows had, and ClownStrike broke Windows.
Now the big question is what happens in the future to prevent a similar event? Microsoft says they are evaluating newer frameworks, more along the lines of what Linux and Mac are currently doing, to remove ClownStrike and similar software from the kernel to keep a repeat event from happening again. I would suspect that the EC regulators will take a look at what this cost the world-wide economy - estimated at over $5 billion dollars - and see that Apple and Linux allow third-party products to work well with their operating systems and give MS permission to lock down their kernel in a more secure fashion.
Which will make things better, but will also take some time to roll out.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/07/97-of-crowdstrike-systems-are-back-online-microsoft-suggests-windows-changes/
Oh, the Uber Eats gift card debacle has been resolved. It's still a debacle, but apparently the cards that were sent out are now actually redeemable.
So why is the European Commission to blame? Let's get technical.
The core of an operating system is its kernel. This is the set of programs that provide its basic operations and core security. Obviously this is the most important part of the OS, and the part that you want to protect the most. Preferably, as the maker of the operating system, you don't want anyone to have direct access to the kernel.
Linux and Apple Mac do not allow access to the kernel, not even for anti-virus and anti-malware applications. They have a framework that allows those sorts of programs to run and defend the kernel, but not actually link into it. Thus, they were completely unaffected by the ClownStrike event.
But because of Microsoft's overwhelming market domination and ubiquity, the EC didn't like that everyone was banned from kernel access for their third-party software for things like malware and virus protection and required that Microsoft literally and actually break their security model to allow such kernel access. The alternative was that they couldn't sell Windows user or server software in Europe, and there was no way that was going to happen. So Microsoft broke the security protections that Windows had, and ClownStrike broke Windows.
Now the big question is what happens in the future to prevent a similar event? Microsoft says they are evaluating newer frameworks, more along the lines of what Linux and Mac are currently doing, to remove ClownStrike and similar software from the kernel to keep a repeat event from happening again. I would suspect that the EC regulators will take a look at what this cost the world-wide economy - estimated at over $5 billion dollars - and see that Apple and Linux allow third-party products to work well with their operating systems and give MS permission to lock down their kernel in a more secure fashion.
Which will make things better, but will also take some time to roll out.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/07/97-of-crowdstrike-systems-are-back-online-microsoft-suggests-windows-changes/
