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Crowdstrike CEO was McAfee CTO when big glitch took down large part of Internet
- xenospn 2y agoHe’s like the Forrest Gump of failure
- dakial1 2y agoFun to read HN post from that time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1282791 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1282791
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- blowski 2y agoFrom Wikipedia: > On April 21, 2010, beginning at approximately 14:00 UTC, millions of computers worldwide running Windows XP Service Pack 3 were affected by an erroneous virus definition file update by McAfee, resulting in the removal of a Windows system file (svchost.exe) on those machines, causing machines to lose network access and, in some cases, enter a reboot loop. McAfee rectified this by removing and replacing the faulty DAT file, version 5958, with an emergency DAT file, version 5959 and has posted a fix for the affected machines in their consumer knowledge base. BBC article from the time: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8636985.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8636985.stm
- firebaze 2y agoQuite a few similar submissions in the last 24 hours gained enough upvotes to show on the front page, seems like someone keeps flagging them. I'm not sure why though, I think the discussion about the similarities and potential reasons behind these events could prove interesting. This post is not even on the first four pages despite ~20 upvotes within an hour, from experience this takes quite a few flags
- politelemon 2y agoYes would be interesting to know what policy implementations or directions could have been common factors between the two companies which led to these incidents.
- blowski 2y agoYes, I'd be interested to hear that. From initial reports, it sounds like under-investment in QA because of over-confidence in automated QC. It's an example of a "black swan" or Bertrand Russell's chicken - the same process has worked many times, leading people to make the false conclusion that the risk has become neglible. There's a successful trial period in which the beancounters reduce headcount with no negative consequences. So the trial becomes permanent, people become less careful. And then boom. They miss that a 1 in 10000 occurence is going to happen eventually, and that "unnecessary expense" which was previously there to mitigate it has now been removed.
- pvg 2y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41007084 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41007084 The similarities are basically coincidence - the rather confected connection doesn't tell you much about either event and the most recent one is in active discussion on the front page already.
- chrisjj 2y agoThe significance may be confected, but the connection certainly is not, being a matter of public record.
- pvg 2y agoSure, we can slice that way if you prefer it but it doesn't make it a more interesting or non-repetitive thing to discuss. Beside there being a place to talk about it if you see it differently.
- rurban 2y agoIt tells you that the fish stinks from the head
- pvg 2y agoI'm not sure 'head technical salesperson at one company became head investor salesperson at another company' is at all necessary to derive that particular and well-worn theory of ichthyo-decay. If the argument is 'we ought to have a thread dunking on this person', I don't think you'll have to wait long, there will surely be several, as this story develops.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- xnx 2y agoThe Thomas Midgley Jr of software.
- dang 2y agoRelated ongoing megathread: CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41002195 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41002195 - July 2024 (3590 comments)
- OutOfHere 2y agoIs the playbook to sell to Intel again?