I actually find that 8 million figure quite hard to believe. I would have thought there were a lot more considering the swiftness and the impact of it. Good luck to all those returning to IT positions this week! We’ve just turned on Windows Hello for a number of devices and some have been prompting users with a blue screen to turn it on so I’m now expecting several teachers to return from holidays and think that we’ve been hit because they’ll see a new blue screen and panic.
Don’t forget it only effects big businesses and governments plus anyone else that could afford it given it is so expensive. The number is probably higher though.
The timing might have helped this, hitting outside of business hours in many markets would have saved a lot of computers.
this is where i argue for ChromeOS for end users if companies are looking for that alternative - especially with its ability to run native Linux apps as well, giving you user friendliness with Linux too, and considering how more apps are going web based as well, its a consideration for sure
the case study from Google, shows how the transition took place for a hotel company too:
as a school IT tech, we have a mixed environment (of Windows and ChromeOS) which hopefully allows for students, when they graduate to be literate in more operating systems than just Windows
ChromeOS is getting better but not quite there for a lot of business workers, but for a sales representative who uses email a fair bit and basic Web processing and conference calls on Zoom or equivalent is fine but I’m a developer and need access to VSCode and different node environments is not ideal for that whereis Apple and less Windows is better alternative. They just need a better way of allowing local admin access as it expires after a few months which is annoying. While having access all the time is a security risk but having the ability to enable it as needed and it is only enabled for a short period of time is a good compromise.
For those wondering what happened with radio, ABC Sydney managed to get part of the east coast combined drive program up on the listen app.
Interestingly with the new audio package they haven’t created any generic stings - using the old generic stings (unless they do have new one’s, and the IT issues prevented them from using them).
I remember when I started my Comp Sci degree, we were strongly encouraged by the lecturers to not use Windows if we could help it. The main reason was that MacOS and Linux are much better for programmers because, being Unix-based, there’s a lot more freedom with the command line (among other things!). As soon as I was able, I bought a Mac and have never looked back…
my desktop is windows, and laptop is a mac - although been wanting to switch to linux desktop wise considering how much M$ is shoving Copilot down everyones throats
I always used Windows as my daily computer for years at work and at home. But about 18 months ago I got a Mac and much prefer it. I manage a lot of Linux based servers in my home lab so was used to using a shell such as bash and zsh. Unfortunately I don’t have a choice at my workplace other than to use a Windows laptop but it would be a Mac if I had a choice.
For me I use Windows for games AND some apps that are not useable on MacOS.
I use both worlds. They all each have their positives and negatives.
I think gaming and maybe some CAD/CAM apps are the only areas where Macs fall short. For everything else MacOS is much better (IMO anyway).
For sure, the intergration with the iphone is pretty sweet. Calls and messages through the Apple Messages app on the mac book.
Whether’s android and windows phone link on the other hand… (yeah, I had bad experience with that). Mac OS has been consistant with its stability. Windows not so much in my experience.
Ok we are getting a little off topic now - unless there’s anything new media wise, we can probably move this to the popular ‘Tech Talk’ thread.
“By the time it hit Melbourne, there were ‘blue screens of death’ as far as the eye could see,” Peters tells Radio Today.
Just after 3pm, Gold 104.3’s playout system – like so many others – was down and the emergency tape was running.
“So, with no Zetta, I’m sitting in production and realise I still have access to the old NexGen system that hasn’t been used since October last year,” says Peters.
“I occasionally use it to check audio levels and it still holds the music database.”
Hmmm, from a cyber perspective, an old piece of unmonitored and since replaced equipment is surely a risk to just leave active to ‘check audio levels’, glad they were able to get back online but surely that box poses some risk to leave active.
Perhaps, but depending on where and how, there can sometimes be very little risk in running old stuff. I’ve been doing IT long enough to know that latest is not always greatest and sometimes there is no functional benefit to upgrading something.
Go look at any small business especially and you will find all sorts of old crap running. Security is not the primary factor behind a lot of business decisions, especially when it gets in the way of something that works as is. Why spend money “fixing” something that functionally isn’t “broken”?
Going back to big business, the operations for Southwest Airlines in the US remained mostly unaffected from CrowdStrike because their systems are still running Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. No joke, look it up. That saved them while other airlines lost millions to this.
Sometimes the old stuff is fine, vulnerabilities be damned. Risk vs cost vs benefit.
Unmonitored is the key part. Old software is much less likely to cause issues if it’s being actively monitored and run in a production environment. Where it’s stopped being used and is just running unchecked and forgotten about it can cause issues.
That might have saved them this time, but there are countless examples where old systems that haven’t been adequately maintained and patched have been the entry point for significant breaches.
There was a story only a few months ago where there was a brand new Windows XP system unpatched which was infected several times simply by existing on the network and internet with no user intervention.
Running old software and systems may work sometimes but can definitely bring about a whole new bunch of issues with all the vulnerabilities out there all the time.