Friday's Blue Screen of Death Insanity

Aren't you glad that you put your entire business (or life) into the hands of Microsoft? Or did you do that? Global Microsoft Meltdown Tied to Bad Crowdstrike Update

You IT folks and your request for Testing resources. What's the Worst That Could Happen?

A faulty software update from cybersecurity vendor Crowdstrike crippled countless Microsoft Windows computers across the globe today, disrupting everything from airline travel and financial institutions to hospitals and businesses online. Crowdstrike said a fix has been deployed, but experts say the recovery from this outage could take some time, as Crowdstrike’s solution needs to be applied manually on a per-machine basis.

Everything from medical providers to airports and airline schedules 911 emergency services were impacted. Because someone didn't do enough (any?) testing on a software changed released on a Friday.

Matt Burgess at Wired writes that within health care and emergency services, various medical providers around the world have reported issues with their Windows-linked systems, sharing news on social media or their own websites.

“The US Emergency Alert System, which issues hurricane warnings, said that there had been various 911 outages in a number of states,” Burgess wrote. “Germany’s University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein said it was canceling some nonurgent surgeries at two locations. In Israel, more than a dozen hospitals have been impacted, as well as pharmacies, with reports saying ambulances have been rerouted to nonimpacted medical organizations.”

In the United Kingdom, NHS England has confirmed that appointment and patient record systems have been impacted by the outages.

No one does proper systems design. (How does 911 grind to a halt over a Windows PC issue that the IT department didn't specifically install?) Also, how is it possible to implement a change that you can't undo as quickly? (Bad design, that's how!) And does no one do software testing? Apparently CloudStrike doesn't do software testing, or not enough anyway.

I imagine that the dust will be settling for a few days.

If you want to get a little bit (but only a little bit) into the weeds, Dave Plummer, of Dave's Garage has the following video: CrowdStrike IT Outage Explained by a Windows Developer. Dave Plummer is a retired Microsoft developer.