Latest news with #MicrosoftWindows
Euronews
2 days ago
- Euronews
One year since Crowdstrike global outage. What has changed since?
One year ago, a faulty update from a cybersecurity firm took down hospitals, airlines, banks, and government offices around the world. On July 19, 2024, Crowdstrike pushed an update to its Falcon program used by Microsoft Windows computers to collect data on potential new cyberattack methods. The routine operation turned into a 'Blue Screen of Death' (BSOD) for roughly 8.5 million Microsoft users in what many considered one of the largest internet outages in history. The fallout meant significant financial losses for Crowdstrike's customers, estimated at around $10 billion (€8.59 billion). "There were no real warning signs that an incident of this nature was likely," Steve Sands, fellow of the Chartered Institute for IT, told Euronews Next. "Most organisations that rely on Windows would have had no planning in place to cater for such an event". But what did Crowdstrike learn from the outage and what can other companies do to avoid the next one? 'Round-the-clock' surveillance of IT environment needed A year after Crowdstrike, outages at banks and 'major service providers' would suggest that the cybersecurity community hasn't changed much, according to Eileen Haggerty, vice president of product and solutions at cloud security company NETSCOUT. So far this year, a cloud outage from Cloudflare brought down Google Cloud and Spotify in June, changes to Microsoft's Authenticator app led to an outage for thousands using Outlook or Gmail in July, and a software flaw at SentinelOne deleted the critical networks necessary to keep its programs running. Haggerty said that companies need to have visibility to respond to possible software problems before they happen by having 'round-the-clock monitoring' of their networks and their entire IT environment. Haggerty suggests that IT teams conduct 'synthetic tests,' which simulate how a site would handle real traffic before a critical function fails. These tests would provide companies 'with the vital foresight they need to anticipate issues before they even have a chance to materialise,' she added. In a blog post, Microsoft said that synthetic monitoring is not airtight and is not always 'representative of the user experience,' because organisations often push new releases, which can cause the whole system to become unstable. The blog post added that it can improve the response time to fix a mistake once spotted. After an outage happens, Haggerty also suggests building a detailed repository of information about why the incident happened so they can anticipate any potential challenges before they become an issue. Sands said these reports should include plans for resilience and recovery, along with an evaluation of where the company has a reliance on external companies. Any company looking to build with "resilience" should do it as early as possible, since it is difficult to be "bolted on later," he said. "Many companies will have updated their incident response plans based on what happened," Sands said. "However, experience tells us that many will already have forgotten the relatively short-term impact and chaos caused and will have done little or nothing". Nathalie Devillier, an expert at the EU European Cyber Competence Centre, told Euronews last year that European cloud and IT security providers should be based on the same continent. "Both should be in the European space so as not to rely on foreign technology solutions that, as we can see today, have impacts on our machines, on our servers, on our data every day,' she said at the time. What has Crowdstrike itself done after the outage? Crowdstrike said in a recent blog post this month that it developed a self-recovery mode to 'detect crash loops and … transition systems into safe mode,' by itself. There's also a new interface that helps the company's customers have greater flexibility to test for system updates, such as setting different deployment schedules for test systems and critical infrastructure so that it doesn't happen at the same time. A content pinning feature also lets customers lock specific versions of their content and choose when and how updates are applied. CrowdSource also now has a Digital Operations Center that it says will give the company a 'deeper visibility and faster response' to the millions of computers using the technology worldwide. It also conducts regular reviews of their code, quality processes and operational procedures. 'What defined us wasn't that moment, it was everything that came next,' George Kurtz, the CEO of Crowdstrike, said in a LinkedIn post this week, noting that the company is now 'grounded in resilience, transparency and relentless execution'. While Crowdstrike has made some changes, Sands believes it might be "an impossible ask" to avoid another outage at that same level because computers and networks "are by their nature highly complex with many dependencies". "We can certainly improve the resilience of our systems from an architecture and design perspective ... and we can prepare better to detect, respond and recover our systems when outages happen," he said.
GMA Network
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- GMA Network
'Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact' game is out now
"Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact" is now available to play! The 2D fighting game was released this week on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Microsoft Windows. The game features tag-team battles, single player modes, and online play. Playable characters from the beloved anime and manga include Gon, Killua, Leorio, Kurapika, Hisoka, Netero, Bisky, Uvogin, Machi, Feitan, Chrollo, Genthru, Razor, Kite, Morel, and Meruem. "Hunter x Hunter" is based on the manga by Yoshihiro Togashi, serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump since 1998. The story follows Gon, who takes the hunter's exam to become a hunter like his father. —JCB, GMA Integrated News
Gizmodo
4 days ago
- Gizmodo
Windows 11 Pro Is Now Under $10, 94% Off Thanks to Microsoft's Limited Back-to-School Deal
At the heart of any good PC or laptop is a good operating system. If you're a Microsoft fan, that means that you'll want to be on Microsoft Windows 11 Pro. That's especially important right now, because support for Windows 10 is ending in October this year. That means you'll want to get a wriggle on if you want to avoid having an unsupported OS. Well, thanks to an amazing deal on StackSocial going on for the next few days that means you can pick up Windows 11 Pro for just $10. That's an absurdly large 94% discount from the standard price, and makes it one of the most affordable software purchases you're likely to make at the moment. See at StackSocial Windows 11 Pro contains everything you'd expect from the best Microsoft OS. That means it's got plenty of amazing security features, including support for biometric login, smart app control, and encrypted authentication to help you keep safe in a multitude of different ways. It has advanced snap layouts to make sure you can easily sort out your desktop as you're multitasking. It also gives easy access to a huge number of advanced features that help you be more efficient when you need to be, and DirectX 12 Ultimate means that your gaming will look amazing, as well as your work. Plus, things are constantly getting updated, and having Windows 11 Pro means that you'll get access to all of that as it becomes better as well. If you make the purchase, you'll get the code via email, and you can follow the instructions on how to install it from there. You just need to make sure your PC or laptop can actually run the OS. You can find the system requirements on the StackSocial page itself. It's not an especially demanding OS, but you should always check these things before committing any money to a new bit of software, no matter how cheap it is. A license for Microsoft Windows 11 Pro would normally cost you $200 from StackSocial, so this deal is an excellent chance to save yourself an absurdly large amount of money. You're not going to be able to get this for $10 for much longer, so if you do want to get this while saving 94%, then make sure you're quick or you'll miss your chance. Windows 11 should last for a fair few years at this point, so this is a good investment. See at StackSocial
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Business Standard
5 days ago
- Business Standard
CERT-In issues warning for Microsoft Windows, Office products: Know why
Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has issued a high-severity warning for users of Microsoft Windows and Office products. CERT-In, in an advisory, warned users regarding a range of security flaws in Microsoft products, which leave them vulnerable to cyberattacks. Since Microsoft Windows and Office products are used widely across the nation, the Central government agency has stated that this vulnerability exposes both individual users as well as enterprises to risk. What did CERT-In say? According to the advisory shared by CERT-In, security flaws have been identified in a range of Microsoft products that could allow attackers to gain elevated privileges, access sensitive data, execute remote code, and bypass existing security protocols. In some cases, they may also enable spoofing attacks, tampering with system configurations, or cause denial-of-service (DoS) disruptions. CERT-In has urged users and administrators to take prompt action to secure their systems and prevent potential exploitation. Affected software The vulnerabilities impact a broad range of Microsoft offerings, including: Microsoft Windows (all supported versions) Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook) Microsoft Dynamics Azure cloud services Microsoft SQL Server System Centre and Developer Tools Extended Security Update (ESU) programs for older Windows versions Microsoft Edge browser and other Microsoft apps If you use a Windows PC or use Microsoft Office or any related service, then it is possible that your system might be at risk. As per CERT-In, Microsoft has confirmed the presence of these security flaws and released a comprehensive advisory outlining the affected products and necessary patches. Fixes have been rolled out through the latest cumulative updates for Windows and other impacted services. While the company states there are no known cases of active exploitation at this time, it strongly urges users to apply the updates without delay. How to safeguard yourself? To safeguard your systems, CERT-In recommends the following steps: Make sure Windows and Office are fully updated Turn on automatic updates via system Settings Restart your device after applying updates Refrain from opening files or clicking on links from untrusted sources Keep your antivirus programs and firewalls up to date
UPI
10-07-2025
- UPI
Outlook outage affects users worldwide, appears nearly resolved
Travelers walk past a screen displaying a Microsoft Windows error message at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C, in 2024. Outlook suffered an outage Wednesday evening and Thursday throughout the workday. File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo July 10 (UPI) -- Outlook email users found themselves without access for several hours Wednesday and Thursday when the service went down. The problems started at 6:20 p.m. EDT Wednesday, according to Microsoft. The outage affected mobile apps and desktop programs. On Thursday afternoon, Microsoft said on X: "Our configuration changes have effectively resolved impact in targeted infrastructure. We're now deploying the changes worldwide to resolve impact for all users." People using social media posted pictures of the Outlook error page that says "something went wrong." Microsoft said it is "continuing to apply the configuration changes to fix the underlying problem and completing additional validation efforts to ensure authentication components are properly configured." The number of users affected is unclear, but the outage appears to have affected users in multiple countries. These include the UK, Australia and Canada. There are more than 400 million Outlook users worldwide. At 3 p.m. Thursday, Microsoft's official Service Status page said: "The expedited configuration change has reached about 65 percent of affected infrastructure. We're continuing to see a sharp increase in service availability worldwide as the deployment continues. We're closely monitoring progress and anticipate full saturation, by Thursday, July 10, at 7:00 PM UTC. (3 p.m. EDT)" TechRadar Pro Managing Editor Desiree Athow said: "Microsoft says that its Outlook desktop client, the popular Microsoft email client that is usually bundled with Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365), is also down, which is a bit of a surprise. No other Microsoft products are currently impacted by the downtime which leaves me to believe that it may be something to do with the email middleware itself rather than a more widespread data center infrastructure."
