Normal Goings-on

[Zzzptm]

Oh yeah, we did the ride to the top, along with the riverboat ride. Lots of fun and good pics. We had fried raviolis for lunch.

[Zzzptm]

Looks like a CrowdStrike update succeeded where the Y2K bug could not.

[Charger]

Yeah! Pretty ridiculous in this day and age that something THAT stupid can happen at THAT scale. Someone hired an idiot!

[Zzzptm]

It's more likely worse than that. Idiocy may be built into their processes.

Security tools need to be updated quickly to deal with emerging threats, so frequent updates are common and expected. So fast, that we're now to the point where we pretty much update code directly to production. Software development goes faster and faster and may have even been automated in order to make updates to security files on that CrowdStrike agent running on Windows. So fast that somebody likely determined that there's no need to test every update, just the major revisions.

And that's where we get tripped up - the idiocy comes down from the top as a means of cutting costs, streamlining processes, and a whole lot of other stuff that works really well until it suddenly doesn't.

[Vyn]

I wonder how many checks those folks are going to be writing in the near future to disgruntled customers.

I mean, imagine being a help desk person at CrowdStrike earlier:

"Hello, may I help you?"

"Hi, yeah, this is Australia, and our government is broken because of your shit software. Can you help please?"

...

"Hello, may I help you?"

"Yeah, this is the British Stock Market, we are down and trading has stopped. Can you please fix. Now."

...

And on and on. DesCartes was down (a transportation software provider), among the many, many orgs that don't get their names on the news.

The sums of money lost, when they tally it all up, are going to be huge.

[Charger]

This is one of those prime examples of what goes wrong when one company becomes too big for their own good. Here one huge fuck up from one single company caused a world wide disaster.

Never put all your eggs in one basket. With the ever increasing globalization these things will keep on happening more and more. Trust more in your local smaller businesses...might end up saving your bacon!

[Zzzptm]

It all goes back to everyone that ignored the Anderson report from 1972 because they wanted dolla dolla bills and couldn't slow down to actually build out a secure operating system:

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD0758206.pdf

It is a fascinating and important read, and I'm going to re-read it during the week.

[Vyn]

I peruse LinkedIn about once a week or so, and today happened to be that time. What a cesspool! As a brief aside, I get that it is a powerful professional networking tool, when used accordingly. Back on topic - Some of the posts and a lot of the comments concerning the CrowdStrike issue were embarrassingly unprofessional. It's like a bunch of frustrated teenage boys all created LinkedIn accounts, many with pro headshots, extensive education backgrounds, and apparently executive roles. Arguing at posts, among each other, name calling, and half of them exhibiting a level of ignorance that I still find stunning.

Which intersects with James Anderson's report right at the "hey, we can make technology ignore human machinations if we'd only just try real hard" part. As long as there are people in this world like the supposedly well-educated professionals I encountered today on LinkedIn, there will never be "turn it on and forget about it" security. In anything.

Fucking bunghole lickers.

[Zzzptm]

And on the government side, the issue of people "not uniformly cleared" with access to sensitive information has only gotten more pervasive since 1972.

At the time he wrote that, most systems were closed off and getting the data involved either having someone working on the inside or being able to pick up keystrokes and data beeps from radio gear set up in an inconspicuous car, tree, or nearby apartment building. Stuff like that. Enough RF shielding, locks on doors, and counterintelligence could provide reasonable security. Anderson's call was about the growing number of asks to network those formerly separate systems.

Equally foresighted is how he calls out manufacturers not considering security because normal users won't be trying to break things. This is especially prevalent in operational technology, the stuff that controls the power grid and manufacturing lines. To the manufacturer, security is someone else's problem.

And that's why we live in a bolt-on world.

[Vyn]

Local Pets Impacted by Heat Wave

Reporter: "Here we have local dog Lola. What are you doing out here in the heat, Lola?"

Lola: "I'm a dog, I can't talk. Dumbass."

[Zzzptm]

Tested positive for COVID-19 today. Explains why I felt like crud since Sunday... I thought Sunday's illness was just a normal cold, so I traveled for work. By yesterday, I was down and out and still thinking not COVID because my symptoms were different this time around.

Today, I had that damn little nagging cough. Put the mask on, flew home, took a test, aced it. Now I get to live in the guest room until I'm done being contagious.

[Vyn]

Oh that sucks Z, hoping for a quick recovery from that nasty bug.

[Zzzptm]

koff koff

Thanks

koff koff

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Get well soon...

The trouble with living in the guest room is that the missus might find it overall a more appealing situation!

[Zzzptm]

no worries here, I travel enough to where we don't want separations to last long.