Bluescreen of Death 2024: Solutions for fast IT recovery

Cyber ​​resilience via remote maintenance
Remotely repair “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD)

03.09.2024

A guest article by Christy Wyatt

3 min reading time

The experts agree: The “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD) during the Crowdstrike incident on July 19, 2024 was one of the largest IT outages in history. How can networks and endpoints become functional again as quickly as possible in the event of damage? With cyber resilience, which is ideally already anchored in the BIOS.

The most serious BSOD to date was triggered by a faulty update of a widely used security software from Crowdstrike. The result: airports had to cease operations, banks, telecommunications companies and broadcasters were paralyzed, critical infrastructure and clinics were affected, and screens in tens of thousands of companies around the world remained black for up to 48 hours. In all likelihood, this will not be the last event of this kind, as large-scale outages caused by software errors are always possible. There is also a risk of serious network outages caused by a whole range of other causes, such as deliberate attacks, malware or natural disasters.

One-click recovery from BIOS

Absolute security At the beginning of August, at the international cyber security trade fair Black Hat 2024 in Las Vegas, a new feature of its “Secure Endpoint” solution was introduced, which is factory-integrated into the BIOS level of 600 million PCs from leading endpoint manufacturers and only needs to be licensed for activation. The new feature from the US-based cyber resilience specialist enables customers to remotely repair endpoints affected by the recent BSOD incident, including identifying associated corrupted files before they trigger a BSOD event. This new capability absolutely complements existing capabilities for remotely repairing and rehydrating PC failures caused by malware, ransomware, unauthorized access and technical errors.

Control over the entire PC fleet

Companies maintain control of their PC fleets with absolute and constant visibility and receive comprehensive information about the security status of all their endpoints to establish a Comply-to-Connect zero-trust model and ensure that only endpoints that comply with security policies can connect to the company's networks, resources and data. This reduces the risk of errors in detecting and preventing threats, stops unauthorized access attempts and prepares for stable network connectivity.

Central task at the highest management level

Attacks and disruptions are inevitable – not all of them can be fended off. That's why more is needed than the usual cyber security. In addition to good hygiene with regular backups, companies are obliged to install, manage and keep consistent security controls on their devices up to date. Cyber ​​resilience is about the ability to get back on your feet just as strong, if not stronger, after disruptions and attacks and to be able to return to everyday work quickly. Cyber ​​resilience must be seen as a central task of the highest management level in companies. Clear plans are needed that are regularly reviewed and adjusted and that also specify which resources the company has at its disposal in the face of adverse circumstances. There is still a huge need to catch up and take action here.

Still too many resilience gaps

This statement is based on the Cyber ​​Resilience Risk Index 2024. For this purpose, Absolute Security analyzed the telemetry data of millions of PCs from companies and public institutions worldwide that have more than 500 active end devices with Windows 10 or 11 in use, on which the software from the US cyber resilience specialists is licensed. It turned out that almost 14 percent of the devices examined were completely missing endpoint protection platforms (EPP), while on computers with a security solution, the EPP and the software for zero-trust network access (ZTNA) did not work in accordance with industry compliance standards, such as those required by the NIS-2 directive, for example. Other major resilience gaps: Companies often wait too long to apply the necessary patches and do not adhere to their own patch guidelines. In addition, more than 90 percent of the computers examined do not have sufficient RAM capacity, which would soon be necessary for the use of artificial intelligence.

Reliability can only be ensured jointly

Failure safety as part of the IT resilience of companies must be the top priority in the modern digital world, and this can only be achieved together. It should not be about stigmatizing affected companies – on the contrary: we are all connected. If one of us or one industry has a problem, many partners must work together to solve this problem. We should always be aware that a blue screen of death or other failures can keep any company running.

About the author: Christy Wyatt, CEO of Absolute Securityexpects further major IT outages and is therefore increasingly focusing on cyber resilience, ideally at the BIOS level.

(ID:50147002)