5 Takeaways from Last Week's Tech Outage Caused by CrowdStrike

Last week's technology outage affected a multitude of systems across many businesses in a variety of industries. Most people experienced some aspect of this outage, even if their own device remained unaffected. You might have been trying to travel or simply visit a website that was down.

This post discusses five takeaways from last week's tech outage caused by CrowdStrike.

5 Takeaways from Last Week's Tech Outage Caused by CrowdStrike

Last week we discussed how you can recycle and reuse older, replaced devices. This leads into this topic, because having a secondary device can save the day in situations like this where an update causes a device to fail to boot or operate properly.

1. Have a backup device

Having a backup device when an update is rolled out might be the only way you can get anything accomplished. If you have an extra device, you can use it to work until whatever happened is fixed. Also, having a backup device is useful if you lose a device, if it becomes damaged, or any other type of thing that could prevent you from properly using it.

Having a backup device may seem expensive, but if you simply keep a previous device when you replace it, the costs are minimal. Also, you have to consider the cost of not being able to work versus the expense of a secondary device. Depending upon what you do, there will likely be an obvious answer to which way to go is right for you.

2. Take the computer off the internet

If you are lucky enough to have a backup computer, or your main computer was lucky enough to be turned off and therefore was not affected by the update pushed out, be sure to remove its internet access before booting the computer.

If you are using a desktop, you are more likely to be connected with a network cable, but it can also be wirelessly connected. If it is connected with a cable that looks a lot like an old phone jack, but wider, you want to unplug this from the device so you can prevent the update from being installed.

If you are connected wirelessly, on a desktop you can unscrew the antennae so the wireless card is unable to connect to the wireless network. Laptops often have a wireless button on their keyboard, and sometimes a physical button on the side that can disable the wireless. Based on which option you have, utilize whichever means is available and do so before or as soon as the computer is booting. In general, the idea is to disable the wireless before any of the local applications have time to connect to their developer servers looking for updates.

Once the computer boots, remove the offending application from your device if you want to be able to reconnect safely to the internet. Keep in mind, this obviously would not work if this was an update pushed out by the operating system, but for peripheral applications like endpoint protection, such as was the case with CrowdStrike, this would have been effective.

You can always reinstall the software later once the application has been patched. Additionally, if you do not need to get onto the internet, you can skip removing the software and simply wait for the patch so you can reconnect to the internet.

3. Have additional software

One thing that can be extremely helpful is having a backup application for those applications you use most. This way, if something happens with one of the applications, you can simply transition to the other and continue working. As with having a backup device, this will come down to how long you can be idle and/or unable to work. Also, you should consider the resources on your device. If your device is already barely getting by, this is probably not an effective solution for you.

Some examples of redundant applications are:

• Snagit and Photoshop
• Paint (built into Windows) and Photoshop
• Libre Office and Microsoft Office
• Firefox/Chrome and Edge (built into Windows OS)/Safari (built into Mac OS)
• Using webmail (which does not require an install) rather than Outlook

4. Have multiple browsers

One of the easiest and best applications to have a secondary version of, is a web browser. If you only have the default installed web browser, and something happens, how are you going to get onto the internet to download a new one? This can be done, but it is tedious at best and you will likely be frustrated by what it takes.

Instead, plan ahead and download a secondary browser. It does not matter which one, whichever you prefer, as long as you have at least two. Web browser applications take up very little space on the local drive, so there is really no downside to having more than one. Also, installing a web browser can be accomplished within five minutes.

5. Keep a copy of files local

The last takeaway is to keep a copy of all of your important/regularly used files local to your device. This is helpful in case the site where they are hosted goes offline, or if you need to use your device offline while patches for critical software are applied. Keeping a local copy of those documents you use most often will help guarantee that you have something to work on while you wait and that your files remain intact.

Anytime updates are pushed out through an application, there is a risk. There is really no way around this because developers are trying to add features, patch security risks, and fix issues all while trying to make one version work for potentially hundreds of thousands of devices. In addition to the sheer number of devices are all the possible combinations of operating systems and third-party applications.

However, there are things you can do to make it easier to adapt when something like this happens again. Start with a backup device and disable its network capability before turning it on. Have multiple software applications so you have options if something happens to one of them. Install a second web browser so you can get to the internet if something happens to the default browser. Keep a local copy of your files so you can work even offline. The more of these things that you do, the more prepared you will be the next time something catastrophic happens.

As always, being prepared is absolutely worth the effort!