Category Archives: Technology

CrowdStrike Outage To Cost US Fortune 500 Companies $5.4bn

Technology

The global technology outage sparked by CloudStrike’s faulty update will cost US Fortune 500 companies $5.4bn, insurers estimated, as the cybersecurity firm vowed to make changes to prevent it from happening again, The Guardian reported.

The projected financial losses exclude Microsoft, the tech giant whose systems suffered widespread failures in the crash.

Companies in banking and healthcare are expected to be hit the hardest, according to the insurer Parametrix, as well as major airlines. The total insured losses for the non-Microsoft Fortune 500 companies could be between $540m and $1.08bn.

According to The Guardian, a variety of industries are still struggling to rectify the damage from CrowdStrike’s outage, which grounded thousands of flights, caused turmoil at hospitals and crashed payment systems in what experts have described as the largest IT failure in history. The outage exposed how modern tech systems are built in precarious ground, with faulty code in a single update able to bring down operations around the world.

CNN reported insurers have begun calculating the financial damage caused by last week’s devastating CrowdStrike software glitch that crashed computers, canceled flights, and disrupted hospitals all around the globe — and the picture isn’t pretty.

What’s been described as the largest IT outage in history will cost Fortune 500 companies alone more than $5 billion in direct losses, according to one insurer’s analysis of the incident published Wednesday.

The new figures put into stark relief how a single automated software update brought much of the global economy to a sudden halt — revealing the world’s overwhelming dependence on a key cybersecurity company — and what it will take to recover.

The estimates come the same day that CrowdStrike issued a preliminary report on how it inadvertently caused the widespread IT meltdown. It is the most dedicated technical analysis to date of the outage.

Businesses are scrambling to recover – especially Delta Air Lines. Delta is still dealing with fallout from the glitch, as thousands of flights have been canceled. The Department of Transportation is investigating.

TechCrunch reported CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm that crashed millions of computers with a botched update all over the world last week, is offering its partners a $10 Uber Eats gift card as an apology, according to several people who say they received the gift card, as well as a source who also received one.

On Tuesday, a source told TechCrunch that they received an email from CrowdStrike offering them the gift card because the company recognizes “the additional work that the July 19 incident has caused.”

“And for that, we send our heartfelt thanks and apologies for the inconvenience,” the email read. According to a screenshot shared by the source. The same email was posted on X by someone else. “To express our gratitude, your next cup of coffee or late night snack is on us!”

In my opinion, it seems like CrowdStrike is trying to make amends for the botched code it used. Perhaps the company learned something from this, and is – hopefully – putting things in place so this never happens again.

CrowdStrike Explains What Happened

Technology

CrowdStrike put up a blog post that gives some information about what happened recently. Here is part of that blog post:

On July 19, 2024, at 04:09 UTC, as part of ongoing operations, CrowdStrike released a sensor configuration update to Windows systems. Sensor configuration updates are an ongoing part of the protection mechanisms of the Falcon platform. This configuration update triggers a logic error resulting in a system crash and blue screen (BSOD) on impacted systems.

The sensor configuration update that caused the system crash was remediated on Friday, July 19, 2024 05:27 UTC.

This issue is not the result of or related to a cyberattack.

Impact: Customers running Falcon sensor for Windows version 7.11 and above, that were online between Friday, July 19, 2024 04:09 UTC and Friday, July 19, 2024 05:27 UTC, may be impacted 

Systems running Falcon sensor for Windows 7.11 and above that downloaded the updated configuration from 04:09 UTC to 05:27 UTC — were susceptible to a system crash.

Root Cause Analysis: We understand how this issue occurred and we are doing a thorough root cause analysis to determine how this logic flaw occurred. This effort will be ongoing. We are committed to identifying any foundational workflow improvements that we can make to strengthen our process. We will update our findings in the root cause analysis as the investigation progresses.

In addition, CrowdStrike wrote: Systems running on Linux or macOS do not use Channel File 291 and were not impacted.

CNBC reported: Security experts said CrowdStrike’s routine update of its widely used cybersecurity software, which caused clients’ computer systems to crash globally on Friday, apparently did not undergo adequate quality checks before it was deployed. 

The latest version of its Falcon Sensor software was meant to make CrowdStrike’s clients’ systems more secure against hacking by updating the threats it defends against. But faulty code in the update files resulted in one of the most widespread tech outages in recent years for companies like Microsoft’s Windows operation system.

Global banks, airlines, hospitals and government offices were disrupted. CrowdStrike released information to fix affected systems, but experts said getting them back online would take time as it required manually weeding out the flawed code.

The Guardian reported scammers are attempting to use global CrowdStrike outage on Microsoft Windows systems to steal from small businesses by offering fake fixes, the Australian government has warned.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre warned on Saturday that a number of malicious websites and “unofficial code” were being released, claiming to help businesses recover from the outage. The centre said it “strongly encourages all consumers to source their technical information and updates from official CrowdStrike sources only.”

In my opinion, I think someone really messed up the code that caused many computers to experience BSOD. Fortunately for me, my computer is macOS.

Major Windows BSOD Hits Banks, Airlines, And TV Broadcasters

Technology,

Thousands of Windows machines are experiencing a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) issue at boot today, impacting banks, airlines, TV broadcasters, supermarkets, and many more businesses worldwide, The Verge reported.

A faulty update from cybersecurity provider CloudStrike is knocking affected PCs and servers offline, forcing them into a recovery boot loop so machines can’t start properly. The issue is not being caused by Microsoft but by third-party CrowdStrike software that’s widely used by many businesses worldwide for managing the security of Windows PCs and servers.

According to The Verge, Australian banks, airlines, and TV broadcasters first raised the alarm as thousands of machines started to go offline. The issues spread fast as businesses based in Europe started their workday. UK broadcaster Sky News was unable to broadcast its morning news bulletins for hours this morning and was showing a message apologizing for “the interruption to this broadcast.”  Ryanair, one of the biggest airlines in Europe, also says it’s experiencing a “third-party” IT issue, which is impacting flight departures.

Crowdstrike says the issue has been identified and a fix has been deployed, but fixing these machines won’t be simple for IT admins. The root cause appears to be an update to the kernel-level driver that CrowdStrike uses to secure Window’s machines. While CrowdStrike identified the issue and reverted the faulty update after “widespread reports of BSODs on Windows hosts,” it doesn’t appear to help machine that have already been impacted.

Reuters reported services from airlines to healthcare, shipping and finance were coming back online on Friday after a global digital outage disrupted computer systems for hours, laying bare the vulnerability created by the world’s shift toward interconnected technologies following the COVID-19 pandemic.

After the outage was resolved, companies are now dealing with backlogs of delayed and canceled flights and medical appointments, missed orders and other issues that could take days to resolve. They also face questions about how to avoid future blackouts triggered by technology meant to safeguard their systems.

An earlier software update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, one of the largest operators in the industry, triggered systems problems that grounded flights, forced broadcasters off air and left customer without access to services such as healthcare and banking.

Since the COVID pandemic broke out in 2020, governments and businesses have become increasingly dependent on a handful of interconnected technology companies over the past two decades, which explains why one software issue rippled far and wide.

The Guardian reported full recovery from an IT failure that wracked havoc worldwide on Friday could take weeks, experts have said, after airports, healthcare services and businesses were hit by the “largest outage in history.”

Flights and hospital appointments were cancelled, payroll systems seized up and TV channels went off air after a botched software upgrade hit Microsoft’s Windows operation system.

It came from the US cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, and left workers facing a “blue screen of death” as their computers failed to start. Experts said every affected PC may have to be fixed manually.

In my opinion, somebody needs to look into what happened at CloudStrike. Why did the update botch? How long will it take to fix all of those computers? 

Elon Musk’s Neuralink Implants Brain Tech In Human Patient For The First Time

Technology,

Elon Musk’s neurotech startup Neuralink implanted its device in a human for the first time on Sunday, and the patient is “recovering well,” the billionaire said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday, CNBC reported.

The company is developing a brain implant that aims to help patients with severe paralysis control external technologies using only unreal signals. Neuralink began recruiting patients for its first in-human clinical trial in the fall after it received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to conduct the study back in May, according to a blog post.

Musk said Monday that Neuralink’s first product is called Telepathy, according to an X post.

If the technology functions properly, patients with severe degenerative diseases like ALS could someday use the implant to communicate or access social media by moving cursors and typing with their minds.

“Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer,” Musk wrote. “That is the goal.”

The in-human clinical trial marks just one step on Neuralink’s path toward commercialization. Medical device companies must go through several rounds of intense data safety collection and testing before securing final approval from the FDA.

Reuters reported that the first human patient has received an implant from brain-chip startup Neuralink on Sunday and is recovering well, the company’s billionaire founder Elon Musk said.

“Initial results show promising neuron spike detection,” Musk said in a post on the social media platform X on Monday.

Spikes are activity by neurons, which the National Institute of Health describes as cells that use electrical and chemical signals to send information around the brain and to the body.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had given the company clearance last year to conduct its first trial to test it’s implant on humans, a critical milestone in the startup’s ambitions to help patients overcome paralysis and a host of other neurological conditions.

The study uses a robot to surgically place a brain-computer interface (BCI) implant in a region of the brain that controls the intention to move, Neuralink said previously, adding that its initial goal is to enable people to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone.

Engadget reported the identity of Neuralink’s first human trial subject hasn’t been made public. However, the company’s call for volunteers stipulates that trial participants must be within the U.S., over 18, and have a disability. Specifically, Neuralink is interested in implanting brain chips in people with “quadriplegia, paraplegia, vision loss, hearing loss, the inability to speak, and/or major limb amputation (affecting above or below the elbow and/or above or below the knee).”

Personally, I hope that the humans who have access to the Neuralink receive the best possible outcome. Previously to putting the chip into humans, the company implanted chips in monkeys – and that didn’t go well.

AI-Created Images Lose U.S. Copyrights In Test For New Technology

Technology, ,

Images in a graphic novel that were created using the artificial-intelligence system Midjourney should not have been granted copyright protection, the U.S. Copyright Office said in a letter seen by Reuters.

“Zarya of the Dawn” author Kris Kashtanova is entitled to a copyright for the parts of the book Kashtanova wrote and arranged, but not for the images produced by Midjourney, the office said in its letter, dated Thursday.

According to Reuters, the decision is one of the first by a U.S. court or agency on the scope of copyright protection for works created with AI, and comes amid the meteoric rise of generative AI software like Midjourney, Dall-E and ChatGPT.

The Copyright Office told Kashtanova in October it would reconsider the book’s copyright registration because the application did not disclose Midjourney’s role.

The United States Copyright Office sent a letter to Mr. Van Lindberg. From the letter:

“The United States Copyright Office has reviewed your letter dated November 21, 2022, responding to our letter to your client, Kristina Kashtanova, seeking additional information concerning the authorship of her work, titled Zarya of the Dawn (the “Work”). Ms. Kashtanova had previously applied for and obtained a copyright registration for the World, Registration #VAu001480196. We appreciate the information provided in your letter, including your description of the operation of the Midjourney’s artificial intelligence (“AI”) technology and how it was used by your client to create the Work.

The Office has completed its review of the Work’s original registration application and deposit copy, as well as the relevant correspondence in the administrative record. We conclude that Ms. Kashtanova is the author of the Work’s text as well as the selection, coordination, and arrangement of the Work’s written and visual elements. That authorship is protected by copyright. However, as discussed below, the images in the Work that were generated by the Midjourney technology are not the product of human authorship. Because the current registration for the Work does not disclaim its Midjourney-generated content, we intend to cancel the original certificate issued to Ms. Kashtanova and issue a new one covering only the expressive material she created…

…Rather than a tool that Ms. Kashtanova controlled and guided to reach her desired image, Midjourney generates images in an unpredictable way. Accordingly, Midjourney users are not the “authors” for copyright purposes of the images the technology generates. As the Supreme Court has explained, the “author” of a copyrighted work is the one “who has actually formed the picture,” the one who acts as “the inventive or master mind.” … A person who provides text prompts to Midjourney does not “actually form” the generated images and is not the “master mind” behind them…

…Nor does the Office agree that Ms. Kashtanova’s use of textual prompts permits copyright protection of restyling images because the images are the visual representation of “creative, human-authored prompts.” Because Midjourney starts with randomly generated noise that evolves into a final image, there is no guarantee that a particular prompt will generate any particular visual output. Instead, prompts function closer to suggestions than orders, similar to its contents…”

In my opinion, this decision is a huge win for all of the artists whose work Midjourney was given to iterate upon. From what I’ve read, the artists whose work Midjourney was trained on were not asked permission for use of their artwork by Midjourney, (or other AI art programs), and certainly were not paid for the use of their work.

I fully agree that Ms. Kashtanova wrote the text of her comic book herself. However, she should not have relied entirely on Midjourney to create the images in her comic book. There are plenty of human artists out there whom she could have hired instead.

FTC Launched New Office Of Technology To Bolster Agency’s Work

Technology,

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission FTC) posted a press release titled: “FTC Launches New Office of Technology to Bolster Agency’s Work”. From the press release:

The Federal Trade Commission today launched a new Office of Technology that will strengthen the FTC’s ability to keep pace with technological challenges in the digital marketplace by supporting the agency’s law enforcement and policy work.

“For more than a century, the FTC has worked to keep pace with new markets and ever-changing technologies by building internal expertise,” said Chair Lina M. Khan. “Our office of technology is a natural next step in ensuring we have the in-house skills needed to fully grasp evolving technologies and market trends as we continue to tackle unlawful business practices and protect Americans.”

The Office of Technology will have dedicated staff and resources, and will be headed by Chief Technology Officer Stephanie T. Nguyen.

Here is what the Office of Technology will do:

Strengthen and support law enforcement investigations and actions: The office will support FTC investigations into business practices and the technologies underlying them. This includes helping to develop appropriate investigative techniques, assisting in the review and analysis of data and documents received in investigations, and aiding in the creation of effective remedies.

Advise and engage with staff and the Commission on policy and research initiatives: The office will work with FTC staff and the Commission to provide technological expertise on non-enforcement actions including 6(b) studies, reports, requests for information, policy statements, congressional briefings, and other initiatives.

Highlight market trends emerging technologies that impact the FTC’s work: The office will engage with the public and external stakeholders through workshops, research conference, and consultations and highlight key trends and best practices.

The Washington Post reported that the FTC has long been dwarfed by Silicon Valley titans like Google and Apple, each staffed with thousands of engineers and technologists.

According to The Washington Post, FTC leaders are hoping combining and expanding their forces into a dedicated tech unit will help keep up with the rapid advancements across the industry – and to keep it in check.

The Washington Post also reported that the FTC’s announcement arrives at a critical juncture. Federal regulators are dialing up investigations into tech behemoths like Amazon and waging blockbuster legal battles against Microsoft and Facebook company Meta.

The agency voted to approve the office’s creation in a 4-0 vote Thursday. It marks the first vote by Republican Commissioner Christine Wilson made public since she announced plans to “soon” retire from the agency on Thursday.

reported that the FTC has long been dwarfed by Silicon Valley titans like Google and Apple, each staffed with thousands of engineers and technologists.

According to The Washington Post, FTC leaders are hoping combining and expanding their forces into a dedicated tech unit will help keep up with the rapid advancements across the industry – and to keep it in check.

The Washington Post also reported that the FTC’s announcement arrives at a critical juncture. Federal regulators are dialing up investigations into tech behemoths like Amazon and waging blockbuster legal battles against Microsoft and Facebook company Meta.

The agency voted to approve the office’s creation in a 4-0 vote Thursday. It marks the first vote by Republican Commissioner Christine Wilson made public since she announced plans to “soon” retire from the agency on Thursday.

Personally, I’m not entirely clear on how this all shakes out. I’m going to guess that the new office will give the FTC the ability to keep up with Google and Apple (among other tech companies) and perhaps enact sanctions if a huge company is doing something egregious.

Xiaomi Opens Store in Birmingham, UK

smartphone, Technology

Xiaomi Logo - an orange squircle with stylised white MI lettersIt might be the season to be jolly but it also seems to be the season for new stores. Following on from Nothing’s new bricks’n’mortar shop in London last weekend, Xiaomi are opening a new place in Birmingham, England.

Xiaomi’s latest pad is at 23 New Street, only a few minutes walk from the train station and Birmingham’s famous Bull Ring shopping centre. Opening today, 18th December, there will be all kinds of special offers as you’d expect for a grand opening from company well-know for its keenly priced products. This is their second UK store alongside the London shop at Westfield, White City.

In addition to usual smartphones, tablets, earbuds and smart watches, Xiaomi produce a wide range of other gadgets and gear; everything from luggage and scooters to air purifiers and air fryers. The Xiaomi portfolio is amazingly wide – it’s a gadget-lover’s heaven.

I was impressed with the Xiaomi Mi 12 smartphone when I reviewed it back in the summer – a good device at good price. Hopefully I’ll get a look at the 13-series when they’re available in Europe.

So if you are still struggling to find a gift for someone who’s hard to buy for, it might be worth a trip into Birmingham.