KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Have a story idea to share with Tod? Send him an e-mail.
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Companies that use certain CrowdStrike cybersecurity software around the country — around the globe, in fact — experienced widespread computer issues Friday morning related to a botched update that was pushed overnight.
The issue only affected computers running certain Microsoft Windows operating systems.
With Windows machines accounting for more than 72% of the home personal-computer market, some might wonder if they’re machines at home are vulnerable, too.
Thankfully, the answer is no, according to the cybersecurity expert we talked to Friday afternoon.
“As far as I know, it's not something that you would need to be concerned about at home,” Nicole Burres, the information security manager for Kansas City-based Loquient Technology Services, said. “Now, it could impact your banking, it could impact some emergency services depending on your location.”
But the CrowdStrike update won’t impact your home computer, because the company doesn’t offer cybersecurity services for personal computing.
“CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity company that deploys cloud solutions to companies,” Burres said. “They have about a 1,000-user minimum licensing requirements, so your end user at home wouldn't be using it.”
That means you can check your email, order a pizza, shop online or let your kids login to Minecraft without worrying about the botched CrowdStrike update.
“This is not something that is associated with Microsoft specifically,” Burres said. “It's something that a third-party service provider pushed out and broke Windows.”
It was a fiasco — one of the largest software outages in U.S. history — but it was a mistake, not a cyberattack.
“To be clear, what happened to CrowdStrike wasn't a threat,” Burres said. “It was an update that broke the systems. ... It was a driver that was incorrectly formatted as far as I know. With that being incorrectly formatted, Windows didn't know what to do with it and put it in that blue-screen-of-death loop.”
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t things computer users should be doing to safeguard their personal information at home.
“Anytime you use a computer, there's going to be some level of risk involved because — one, it's digital data; two, network connection is everywhere, so you're always connected,” Burres said.
She recommends having a backup system in place, using spam filters, and keeping antivirus software up to date.
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