There is chaos all over the world due to a software problem! Many flights have been canceled, and many banks, telecommunications and media companies have had their services interrupted. It is stated that the reason behind this whole crisis is a problem caused by the global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike and Microsoft.
Cybersecurity expert Baran Erdoğan said in his assessment that CrowdStrike is a US-based company that provides advanced security software to protect servers and end-user systems.
Erdoğan, who stated that all of the management systems of this company are outside the country, said, “Only the software installed on the operating systems they manage is inside the devices in Turkey, everything else is outside the country. Such software has the ability to update itself remotely centrally. They can update remotely without anyone knowing. While doing this update, they made an update that they did not test properly and caused a worldwide problem.”
“THE PROBLEM CANNOT BE SOLVED WITH A NEW REMOTE UPDATE BECAUSE THE SYSTEM HAS CRASHED”
Erdoğan stated that as a result of faulty updates, systems crashed and problems occurred in all systems where this software was installed, and noted the following:
“Since every system where the software is installed has crashed, the problem cannot be solved with a new remote update. To solve the problem, each device needs to be manually intervened. Each server and device needs to be shut down, opened in special operation mode, and the file that is causing the error needs to be fixed. This needs to be done on millions of systems around the world that use CrowdStrike’s software. Until this process is completed, systems that are not fixed will continue to experience problems.”
“THERE IS A RISK IN CENTRALLY MANAGED SYSTEMS OVER THE CLOUD”
Erdoğan emphasized that such software with central update capability should not be installed in critical infrastructures such as public institutions and banks in order to avoid such disruptions, and said, “There was a structure that was used for a long time that each customer installed in their own environment. At this point, cloud solutions have started to be preferred. All systems with central management over the cloud carry this risk. The solution to this is for institutions with critical infrastructures to switch to structures that they can manage themselves, not centrally over the cloud.”
Erdoğan, drawing attention to the fact that these software pose a greater risk in terms of security, said, “Since these software can be updated centrally, if CrowdStrike systems were hacked, malicious software could be installed on all devices in the world where CrowdStrike is used. This risk also exists.” (AA)