The world surely ain't ready for a Cyber Pandemic 💀

- On Friday morning, a massive outage affected airlines, TV broadcasters, banks, and other essential services worldwide, linked to CrowdStrike software. - The issue caused Windows machines to display the Blue Screen of Death, with systems falling offline due to a faulty content update. - CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz stated the problem isn't a cyberattack and doesn't affect Mac or Linux machines, but fixing it could take days to weeks. - The outage is tied to CrowdStrike's Falcon platform, which combines multiple security solutions into a single hub. - Independent cybersecurity researcher Lukasz Olejnik noted the interconnected nature of software can lead to single points of failure, complicating recovery efforts. Source: The Verge

- Around 8.5 million Windows devices were impacted by a recent CrowdStrike outage, according to Microsoft VP David Weston. - This is the first official number released, revealing the global scale of the issue caused by a software update. - The outage affected critical sectors like banks, airlines, and rail networks, despite the relatively low percentage of affected devices. - Weston emphasized the broad economic and societal impacts, noting the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises running critical services. - Microsoft and CrowdStrike are collaborating on a scalable solution to accelerate recovery, involving AWS and Google Cloud. Source: Techcrunch

TLDR 1. Satya did tv interviews and was fine if Altman goes back to OpenAI 2. Salesforce’s Marc Benioff wrote a tweet saying he’ll match compensation of any OpenAI team member who wants to join Salesforce 3. Of some 750+ employees, 700 will move to Microsoft (with Sam) in case Sam doesn’t return. That’s insane. 4. Vinod Khosla an early investor in OpenAi tweeted that all the openai employees should quit in case their board members don’t resign 5. Interim ceo of openai Emmett Shear (formerly of Twitch) called for emergency all hands on Sunday and apparently no one turned up

- Major banks, media, airports and airlines affected by major IT outage - Payment systems impacted in different parts of the world, including Australia and the UK. - Australia's government calls for emergency meeting - Significant disruption to some Microsoft services - 911 services disrupted in several US states including Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Ohio. - Services at London Stock Exchange disrupted - Sky News is off air - Reports the issue relates to problem at global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike

All laptops in my team are down. Apparently it's a global issue with Microsoft laptops - others also facing the same?

- CrowdStrike president Michael Sentonas accepted the 'Most Epic Fail' award at Def Con 2024, following a global IT meltdown caused by a software update. - The award ceremony took place right after the Black Hat conference, where CrowdStrike had a significant presence, distributing free T-shirts and action figures. - Sentonas' acceptance speech, shared online, was met with enthusiasm and appreciation from the audience for acknowledging the company's mistakes. - The award was a last-minute addition, with organizers noting that CrowdStrike was an obvious choice for the 'Most Epic Fail' category. - Sentonas emphasized the importance of owning up to mistakes and stated that the trophy would be displayed at CrowdStrike HQ as a reminder to prevent future errors. Source: [Techcrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/11/crowdstrike-accepts-award-for-most-epic-fail-after-global-it-outage/)

Just couple of days after Microsoft mass layoffs, ms services down with global outage. Affected services Outlook, Teams and services of O365.

Seems to have troves of sensitive data and scary at that. Wondering how much of our national cyber infra handling sensitive data is at risk from foreign state actors. https://twitter.com/_avahgar_/status/1759792738177020260