Inside The Outages: A Dangerous Null Pointer Exception Deployed On Friday
The world went into shock when cyber security firm “Crowdstrike”, a provider of endpoint protection software, released an update on Friday, July 19th 2024 that wrecked millions of Windows computers worldwide. In this article, I’ll dive into what exactly happened, how this should’ve never happened and why we already know that 3rd party endpoint protection software itself is a dangerous security threat.
Before we deep dive into CrowdStrike and the debacle of disrupting the lifes of millions of people on July, 19th 2024, we’ll need to have a look at what CrowdStrike does and why Microsoft isn’t to blame for any of this. “Endpoint protection” is the latest craze in the cybersecurity world and describes software that runs on local machines to ensure they do not execute malicious software or any unintended code. Sounds familiar? It is. To put it bluntly, endpoint protection is just a fancy name for your good old anti-virus and firewall software. It’s what ZoneAlarm, Norton AntiVirus and the likes were in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
How endpoint protection works
Endpoint protection systems consist of two major components: a backend control center and an agent software installed on the endpoints. Endpoints meaning mobile devices, computers, servers, and…
