Re: xkcd: CrowdStrike

On Fri, 2 Aug 2024 16:41:48 -0000 (UTC), Mike Van Pelt
<usenet@mikevanpelt.com> wrote:

In article <v81f3u$32eu9$3@dont-email.me>,
Lynn McGuire  <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

“Microsoft appears to want to shift away from security software having
kernel access on Windows 11, though the company hasn’t said that outright.â€?
>
Sounds like a good idea. And fix all of the other kernel holes while
they are at it.

>
Of course, what will almost certainly happen instead is
that Microsoft will not fix all the other kernel holes,
and instead of a CrowdStrike "computers down for a while"
(which is unlikely to happen again, I would suspect that
this is a lesson they will not be forgetting) it'll be "mass
ransomware attack and nobody will get their data back without
paying a billion to Putin's hacker brigades."

Backups are the key here. Daily backups, and to items unlikely to be
affected (provided the hackers ignore USB/WiFi drives) or (not daily
but not too ancient either) USB thumb drives that /are not attached to
any computer/ and so cannot be reached by the kernal, however hacked.

/Serious/ backups, that's what I am talking about.

Microsoft doesn't have the best record of proactively
dealing with security flaws in their products.  And often
foot-dragging on patching known holes.

I don't know if this is an example or not, but I remember an enormous
number of XP updates "fixing the XML bits".

(I am most bodaciously *NOT* going to be installing any
version containing their "Recall" product.  This may be the
thing that finally drives me to wipe all Microsoft from my
computers and go all Linux.)

As I understand it, it's only runnable on a specific type of computer
with a special AI processor. I plan on avoiding such computers if/when
I need a replacement. Giving Microsoft's penchant for "enhancing" its
OSes, just buying a version without it won't necessarily keep it off
the computer -- but not being able to run it because the computer
doesn't have the processor needed probably would, at least for a
while.

They do remove features too. Home Network was useful, but apparently
they didn't want to support it, do they pulled the UI (to this day, my
desktop accesses files on my laptop not using my user name but using
"home users", suggesting that the underlying infrastructure is still
there). superfetch was a disaster that appears to have vanished.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"