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From enabling employees to work from anywhere to enhancing business resilience, Windows 365 has transformed how companies operate. Today, we’re introducing new updates to Windows 365 based on customer feedback and new use cases to keep businesses secure and employees productive. Learn more in our blog from Scott Manchester. https://lnkd.in/ggb9MHy9

A defect found in a CrowdStrike content update for Windows hosts is causing widespread, global outages. As a result, some standard communication streams have been impacted for our expert services. This is not a ConnectWise outage, incident, or cyberattack. It is a third-party outage. In the mean time, partners can call, chat or submit a ticket through PSA to get in touch with our Help Desk Service team. Please note email is currently unavailable. Chatting with our NOC team is also impacted but partners can call, email, or submit tickets through PSA for uninterrupted support. Read our blog for more information. http://ms.spr.ly/6045lr1WF #outage #windows #crowdstrike #NOC

Today's outage underscores the critical need for resilient operating systems that are always ready to service and boot in large-scale deployments. An immutable system always has the last ready-to-boot copy of the OS, and in the case of an error, automatic health checks detect the issue and roll back to a previous known good state. For more insights, check out my latest blog post: https://lnkd.in/eMGk_bcw #CrowdStrike #Microsoft #Outage #BSOD #SUSE

It's the 3year anniversary for Windows 365. Check out how we are celebrating with the continuous innovation happening on the product :) #Windows365 #AzureVirtualDesktop #WindowsCloud

The recent #CrowdStrike update affected 8.5 million #Windows systems, highlighting critical lessons for the future. Key takeaways include the importance of robust testing procedures, comprehensive data backup strategies, and diversification of services. Learn how Dropsuite can enhance your business continuity and prevent data loss: https://ow.ly/bwCL50SKyW3 https://ow.ly/cGrz50SKyW1

Appreciate and acknowledge the efforts of IT teams working tirelessly to restore the halted business operations caused by inadvertent outage due to an update from of Falcon sensor. Guidance from CrowdStrike on the issue and fix Details * Symptoms include hosts experiencing a bugcheck\blue screen error related to the Falcon Sensor. * Windows hosts which have not been impacted do not require any action as the problematic channel file has been reverted. * Windows hosts which are brought online after 0527 UTC will also not be impacted * Hosts running Windows 7/2008 R2 are not impacted * Channel file "C-00000291*.sys" with timestamp of 0527 UTC or later is the reverted (good) version. * Channel file "C-00000291*.sys" with timestamp of 0409 UTC is the problematic version. Current Action * CrowdStrike Engineering has identified a content deployment related to this issue and reverted those changes. * If hosts are still crashing and unable to stay online to receive the Channel File Changes, the following steps can be used to workaround this issue: Workaround Steps for individual hosts: 1) Reboot the host to give it an opportunity to download the reverted channel file. If the host crashes again, then: Boot Windows into Safe Mode or the Windows Recovery Environment NOTE: Putting the host on a wired network (as opposed to WiFi) and using Safe Mode with Networking can help remediation. 2) Navigate to the %WINDIR%\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory 3) Locate the file matching “C-00000291*.sys”, and delete it. 4) Boot the host normally. Note: Bitlocker-encrypted hosts may require a recovery key. Workaround Steps for public cloud or similar environment including virtual: Option 1: * Detach the operating system disk volume from the impacted virtual server * Create a snapshot or backup of the disk volume before proceeding further as a precaution against unintended changes * Attach/mount the volume to to a new virtual server * Navigate to the %WINDIR%\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory * Locate the file matching “C-00000291*.sys”, and delete it. * Detach the volume from the new virtual server * Reattach the fixed volume to the impacted virtual server Option 2: * Roll back to a snapshot before 0409 UTC. AWS-specific, Azure environment and Bitlocker recovery information and full details can be found at https://lnkd.in/g3XwNemd

Let's consider the scale of this incident. 8.5 million Windows devices comprise merely 0.5% of the Windows install base, and less than 0.05% of all connected devices. There can (and will) be future disruptions orders of magnitude more severe than this one.

As most are aware by now, CrowdStrike is currently facing a significant challenge due to a recent software update error, resulting in global outages on Microsoft systems. This incident has notably impacted various sectors, including airlines, media, and healthcare. While not a cyberattack, the considerable disruption to business operations serves as a sobering reminder on the importance of robust system availability and security. End users are significantly impacted by this outage. Millions of workstations around the world are crashing, leaving users with blue screens and unusable computers. An incident of this magnitude is rare, as many of the workarounds require manual intervention by IT personnel. This situation underscores the need for resilience, rigorous testing, and having rollback options in place when deploying updates. Mistakes and oversight can happen; strong incident response and up-to-date disaster recovery plans are essential. To those impacted, CrowdStrike is actively addressing the situation. They have released a statement with the latest updates, which can be found here: https://shorturl.at/jbhSa #CrowdStrike #Microsoft

Best practices your organization can take to enhance the resiliency of Windows and ensure that you can remediate or restore devices quickly.

Disruptions happen!! 💥 We agree and follow Microsoft's belief system - when a major incident arises, we focus on remediation, learning, and change, all while communicating transparently to our ecosystem. 🤝 The recent CrowdStrike incident highlights the critical need for robust resiliency strategies. 🛡️ Microsoft emphasizes the importance of having business continuity plans, secure data backups, deployment rings, and utilizing cloud-native solutions. 💻 ProArch is committed to supporting these efforts to ensure our customers can swiftly recover from disruptions. 💪 #Windows #Cybersecurity #Resilience #ProArch #Microsoft