“Should MSPs manage antivirus (AV) products separately from RMM software?

Improved Prompt Example: “Should MSPs manage antivirus (AV) products separately from RMM software? Many MSPs and CTOs try to manage everything in one platform, but I believe this leads to reduced quality in both support and security. RMM software was designed for remote management, but investor pressure has caused it to integrate AV products, which leads to issues like lack of third-level support.Along misconfiguration

A recent Crowdstrike issue involving a sys file was worsened by delivery mechanisms from Microsoft and Cloudflare. EULAs are often written to discourage lawsuits rather than compensate users for developer errors.

As a distributor of security products like Bitdefender and Barracuda, MspPortal Partners provides comprehensive support. We believe in training partners properly to manage AV and Mail solutions effectively, and our 24/7 support service sets us apart.”

Roy Miehe | MspPortal Partners Inc. | Ceo/President
Security Software Distributor: Bitdefender , Barracuda, Phishing Simulation & Cyber Security Training
“Where Service and Technical Skills Count”

Are industrywide claims of cybersecurity as a board-level discussion little more than lip service to stakeholders?

COMMENTARY; By Roy Miehe and Raja Mukerji

No organization is immune to today’s looming cybersecurity threats. Whether a large enterprise or a small business, building proactive defenses is critical to day-to-day functions. It’s just as essential to manage cyber-risks as it is to manage other business risks, since successful attackers have the power to financially cripple businesses, damage reputation, and affect continuity.

Amid today’s rising threats — from ransomware and data breaches to the impact of geopolitical and nation-state threats — true cyber preparedness requires the right internal collaboration and tools to bolster business resilience. The responsibility for managing cyber-risk is a collective effort, and everyone plays a role — especially the C-suite.

Are industrywide claims of cybersecurity as a board-level discussion little more than lip service to stakeholders?

My personally comment; MspPortal Partners Inc
Managing over 420 MSP Partners and over 4000 firms amongst them, It is imperative that MspPortal Partners offer best of breed Security Solutions
Firewall Solution on premise
Email Protection (Phishing Malware, detection even phishing training, Backup O365 and GSuite
AntiMalware protection that techs can control, Not like Crowdstrike nor Sentinal One,
that caused one of the biggest tech issue’s/breach over a sys file update, that was distributed by Microsoft and Cloudfare.

AND certainly not Symantec nor Mcaffee..to many startups trying to capture market share with out world like experience let alone providing service and Tech Support via Phone Support. C-Suite are paid way to much for being actors and politics with little or no knowledge of Real Company Security.

MspPortal Partners, does no advertising, has not moved our prices up since we reduced them at the beginning of COVID. We only carry 5 products on purpose..so we can provide level 3 support if needed..most cases are level 1. In most cases we are smarter then the product manufacturers techs

Long Short please do not allow salespeople convince you that there product is better even over pricing; RMM’s are now the leading issue of distributing malware with bad API Hooks beside being over priced and understaffed.

Market share held by the leading computer (desktop/tablet/console) operating systems worldwide from January 2012 to February 2024

Long Short if the statics are correct 68.15 percent of the world uses Microsoft OS’s

Published by
Ahmed Sherif,
May 22, 2024

Microsoft’s Windows is the most widely used computer operating system in the world, accounting for 68.15 percent share of the desktop, tablet, and console OS market in February 2024. Apple’s macOS ranks as the next most widely used operating system, while its iOS mobile operating system, the standard installation on all iPad devices, ranks fourth. Linux OS versions serve as the primary option for users who prefer open-source software and intend to avoid the influence of major OS developers.
Operating Systems

Operating systems serve as the underlying platforms which connect computer hardware and software. They provide users with the graphical interface through which they issue commands and perform tasks on electronic devices. Billions of people make use of these devices and their operating systems on a regular basis, meaning that the companies that develop these widely used technologies have a great deal of influence on the daily lives of internet users around the world. Although Microsoft Windows is the clear leader in terms of desktop operating systems,

Article
(https://www.statista.com/statistics/268237/global-market-share-held-by-operating-systems-since-2009/)

Which we are and still are dealing with having even more security issue’s because the CrowdStrike debacle
Based upon what I do for a living I see more Large Mega Cap Firms down to SMB firms struggling more then ever before.

Personally some attorney with a class action filed should request a huge Liquidated damages (LDs): Which is a sum of money specified in some contracts that are to be paid by one party to another as compensation for intangible losses.

Hopefully this will put huge firms like Crowdstrike, Microsoft, Cloudflare all on notice,if you are going to take money from clients/enduser you are responsible for damages and please do not try to hide behind a EULA..I still have not heard back about how many techs Crowdstrike or Microsoft were sending over to Delta Airlines,considering each machine had to be touched and continue to be touched since you cannot write a Power Shell Script nor remote to a machine, that is Blue Screened (BOD). There has been a lot of LIP SERVICE

Roy Miehe | MspPortal Partners Inc. | Ceo/President
Security Software Distributor: Bitdefender , Barracuda, Phishing Simulation & Cyber Security Training
“Where Service and Technical Skills Count

Continued from July 19th 3 Cause’s of the Crowdstrike down in reality

Keep in mind this is my personal opinion..please prove me wrong if you can.

3 Cause’s of the CrowdStrike down
1) Bad Developer file uploaded/downloaded
2) Microsoft Software runs the operating systems sort of like a monopoly, we all know it in reality it is.
3) Distribution of software via Cloudflare

Keep in mind this is my personal opinion..please prove me wrong if you can.

I read something today that shocked me. CloudStrike was going pay techs globally $10.00 coffee vouchers to remove sys file issue. I work with four hundred plus tech firms through out the US I have never heard of a computer Tech working for a $10.00 coffee voucher.
Normal Tech rates run from entry level $50.00 to $500.00 a hour.

(Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp. said Delta Air Lines Inc. turned down repeated offers for assistance following last month’s catastrophic system outage, echoing claims by CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. in an increasingly contentious conflict between the carrier and its technology partners.
Now I am not a strong proponent of Ed Bastien (to full of himself) nor do I fly Delta.

If read/sift through all the garbage it really was all 3 firms that caused the outage.
No matter what OS Delta was running, Windows, Apple, Linux, The Falcon Platform runs on all 3. So in my opinion Delta does deserve the money for the down time.

Even thou in my opinion Mark S Cheffo when :“Even though Microsoft’s software had not caused the CrowdStrike incident, Microsoft immediately jumped in and offered to assist Delta at no charge,” I did not hear they were going to fly Techs to fix all Delta’s machines, for that matter globally let alone Delta

When does a end user or SMB company ever able to talk to Microsoft Support and receive a response within a reasonable amount of time?

So right now I see 2 parties at fault (Microsoft & CroudStrike)
But there is a 3rd party involved, CloudFlare, have you ever asked yourself what they do:Protecting it from online threats and optimizing performance there web Site.

Cloudflare is a company that provides services like content delivery network (CDN), cloud cybersecurity, DDoS mitigation, Domain Name Service (DNS), and domain registration. They help improve website speed, security, and reliability by acting as a mediator between a website’s server and its visitors, protecting it from online threats and optimizing performance.

Cloudflare
American internet infrastructure and website security company
cloudflare.com

Cloudflare, Inc. is an American company that provides content delivery network services, cloud cybersecurity, DDoS mitigation, Domain Name Service, and ICANN-accredited domain registration services. Cloudflare’s headquarters are in San Francisco, California. According to The Hill, Cloudflare is used by more than 20% of the Internet for its web security services, as of 2022. Wikipedia

Now all this is my opinion but should help create and finish a Class Action Law Suit, all 3 need to named as defendants.

Last Pay Your developers and Tech Support folks more money, Take it out of the C-Levels paychecks/bonuses. It appears that most firms have forgotten with out staff the company would be nothing.

Windows update may present users with a BitLocker recovery screen

Posted: July 25, 2024 by Pieter Arntz

Some Windows users may see a BitLocker Recovery screen after applying the Microsoft patch Tuesday updates. BitLocker is a Windows security feature that encrypts entire drives. It prevents someone that has obtained a stolen or lost device from reading the files stored on that drive.

Unfortunately, though, Microsoft launched an update this month that has caused problems for some Windows systems. Without telling the public what, exactly, has gone wrong, Microsoft provided some details about what might happen on the Windows release health dashboard.

Affected systems are running Windows 10 and 11 or one of the server versions (Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008.). And the affected systems are very likely to have Device Encryption enabled.

You can find out if you have Device Encryption enabled by looking at:
Settings
Privacy & Security
Device encryption

If Device encryption doesn’t appear under Privacy & Security, it isn’t available for your system.

Under normal circumstances you wouldn’t see the BitLocker Recovery screen unless you enter the wrong PIN too many times or when you’ve made some hardware or firmware changes.

If you are affected by this faulty update, you will be presented with a screen similar to this one when you boot the system.

Roy Miehe | MspPortal Partners Inc. | Ceo/President

Security Software Distributor: Bitdefender , Barracuda, Phishing Simulation & Cyber Security Training

“Where Service and Technical Skills Count”

CrowdStrike Blames Crash on Buggy Security Content Update

It is amazing that a security company would even make this type of comment.
They are a Wallstreet “darling” CrowdStrike Response & Mitigation Continues, this will go on for a longer period of time then affected companies will disclose publicly.

CrowdStrike remains in the hot seat — quite literally, as the company’s CEO George Kurtz has been called on to testify before Congress about the incident — and has considerable work to do to salvage its reputation in the wake of the incident

Personally I believe the next shoe to fall will be Sentinel One also wall street traded

A buggy “security content configuration update” to CrowdStrike’s Falcon sensor, which is aimed at gathering telemetry on novel threat techniques for Windows, has been confirmed as the root cause of the problem that crashed computers around the world on July 19, and is still having an impact on global IT teams, the vendor says.

Personal opinion
Uninstall and cancel your agreement with Crowdstrike strike 2 with the current CEO
If a Class action lawsuit is actually filed join in at least try to recoup some of your losses.
In todays world of Antivirus/Malware there is only one product that allows full control of your environment

Lead Article=Elizabeth Montalbano, Contributing Writer

https://www.darkreading.com/endpoint-security/crowdstrike-crash-buggy-security-content-update?_mc=NL_DR_EDT_DR_weekly_20240725&cid=NL_DR_EDT_DR_weekly_20240725&sp_aid=124803&elq_cid=34964379&sp_eh=949bacdba1e2c4851acc11df0ff47140b1c6468716621bc723fe5fe498198bd9&sp_eh=949bacdba1e2c4851acc11df0ff47140b1c6468716621bc723fe5fe498198bd9&sp_cid=54465

3 Cause’s of the Crowdstrike down in reality

Keep in mind this is my personal opinion..please prove me wrong if you can.

3 Cause’s of the Crowdstrike down
1) Bad Developer file uploaded
2) Microsoft Software ( Be a developer of software not a security expert
3) Distribution of software via Cloudfare

Keep in mind this is my personal opinion..please prove me wrong if you can.

A faulty kernel driver developed by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike has caused a massive Microsoft outage that is currently causing chaos around the world. Windows machines have been crippled by the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) on a global scale. The situation is so serious that flights are being grounded, major banks are experiencing problems with their systems, while key emergency 911 services have also been affected.

Cloudflare (down more then its up we have logs) Expands Relationship with Microsoft, Makes Industry Leading …
Jan 12, 2023Cloudflare and Microsoft announce new integrations between Cloudflare One and Microsoft Azure Active Directory to help customers deploy Zero Trust security across applications, users, devices and networks. The partnership also includes features such as Remote Browser Isolation

“The criticality of CrowdStrike as a security platform tends to, I think, outweigh some of those issues in the sense of customers can’t afford to just turn them off and not renew because of one incident. They’re just too tied into the ecosystem,” Walsh tells Yahoo Finance. “They’re too critical of a tool and what kind of within the overall stack. So I think those conversations certainly have the potential to emerge…”

Josh Lipton and Julie Hyman
Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 1:19 PM MST

Comments like this are foolish, of course you can change software providers..Comments like this are like the early 90’s when Symantec and McAfee dominated the AV industry (Techs comments back then were we will never get fired if we use the 2 products mentioned above, but we all managed to survive with better products that did not peg the CPU’s)

Defused Cyber Deception Researcher and Founder Simo Kohonen joins to discuss the implications for CrowdStrike and the broader cybersecurity landscape.

Kohonen explains that CrowdStrike “pushed out a faulty update” that, when installed, “broke everything,” affecting industries globally. He emphasizes CrowdStrike’s reputation as the “top number one cybersecurity company in the world” and notes that their extensive customer base amplifies the scale of this issue. While the issue is fixable, he cautions that the timeline for resolving this problem may vary.

Simo Kohonen – Aalto University | LinkedIn
Sep 2021 – Present 2 years 7 months. Helsinki Metropolitan Area. Key contributor in the technology-related major fundraising at the Aalto University. Managing key accounts in a client and data driven manner utilizing the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system. Identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding

Crowdstrike EULA (https://www.crowdstrike.com/terms-conditions/)
8.5 No Guarantee. CUSTOMER ACKNOWLEDGES, UNDERSTANDS, AND AGREES THAT CROWDSTRIKE DOES NOT GUARANTEE OR WARRANT THAT IT WILL FIND, LOCATE, OR DISCOVER ALL OF CUSTOMER’S OR ITS AFFILIATES’ SYSTEM THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, MALWARE, AND MALICIOUS SOFTWARE, AND CUSTOMER AND ITS AFFILIATES WILL NOT HOLD CROWDSTRIKE RESPONSIBLE THEREFOR.

My opinion every major provider write EULA’s like this..They take your money and say sorry..right now Crowd Strke does not have enough employees to remove the file that broke it, the firms that use Crowdstrike also do not have enough techs to to fix all systems affected, including Chase .

Personally I would like to see a law firm create a class action law suit, for loss’s incurred..

I do know about this matter I recommended a RMM soultion to one of my partners..The firms development team pushed the wrong patch out in a update that deleted over 4000 endpoints of one of the largest and most reliable AV solutions back then and even today. Personally my firm and along with myself restored all endpoints, I did drop the RMM when they basically said sorry but would not pay for costs to restore, this still happens to be a client today still..its all about service.

I wish you all luck to get your services restored, hire a qualified tech

After being fined for fraudulent ads, Meta tries to discredit researchers

Updated on: June 14, 2024 6:47 AM Paulina Okunytė Journalist (Good Job)

The legal action was based on NetLab’s findings, which indicated that Meta did not take down 1817 paid ads containing scams.

The fraudulent ads used the name of a popular government program to assist indebted individuals, called Desenrola, and kept running even after months after official notification.

To all MSP and Tech’s do what you can to block Facebook / Meta just for security purposes

Meta has received backlash after trying to discredit researchers who identified fraudulent ads on its platforms as “unable to produce technical evidence.”

Meta’s lawyers called researchers from NetLab, a research group affiliated with one of Brazil’s top universities – Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) – “biased” and “unable to produce technical evidence.”

The accusation comes as part of the company’s defense in an ongoing case in Brazil. The country’s federal watchdog for consumer issues, Senacon, sued the tech giant in November 2023 for failures in ad moderation on the company’s main platforms, Facebook and Instagram.

The legal action was based on NetLab’s findings, which indicated that Meta did not take down 1817 paid ads containing scams.

The fraudulent ads used the name of a popular government program to assist indebted individuals, called Desenrola, and kept running even after months after official notification.

The formal document, obtained by journalists at Brazilian tech news outlet Nucleo, describes Netlab as a “partial third party” and questions its ability for neutrality.
Accusation of bias

Meta accused NetLab’s report of containing “a series of imperfections, biased responses, distorted conclusions, and reliability that is, at best, dubious.”

However, the company failed to specify what the alleged errors were.

“Netlab has an institutional political opinion that is manifestly opposed to Facebook Brazil [Meta’s legal name in Brazil],” the company argued.

“And not only that: the coordinator of the laboratory herself, Professor Rose Marie Santini, has publicly expressed strong criticisms of digital platforms,” the document reads.

One of Meta’s attempts to undermine the group is to argue that NetLab’s report lacked links to each of the ads it identified as fraudulent.

Apparently, the researchers shared the URLs and IDs of each ad with Nucleo reporters.

“This is a strategy to make us work for them, given that they have already made money from an ad, and this request transfers to us the responsibility of cleaning up their platform,” said Santini to Nucleo.
Meta condemned by activists

Meta’s actions have been condemned by activists. 70 organizations, research centers, digital rights watchdogs, and think tanks have signed a note of repudiation.

“This is an attack on scientific research work and attempts to intimidate researchers who are carrying out excellent work in the production of knowledge based on empirical analyses that have been fundamental in qualifying the public debate on platform accountability,” they stated in the note.

Microsoft 365 suite status changed to WARN

warn status (MspPortalPartners Status Page)

Microsoft 365 suite is now WARN
Previous status was UP
Users’ file related operations may fail within various Microsoft 356 services
Title: Users’ file related operations may fail within various Microsoft 356 services User impact: Users’ file related operations may fail within various Microsoft 356 services. More info: The impacted scenarios may include but not are limited to the following: -Android and iOS users may be unable to preview Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint files within the Microsoft Teams mobile app -Users may be unable to open .zip downloads in Microsoft Teams. -Users may be unable to view PDF and image files shared with download disabled in Microsoft Teams desktop client and Microsoft Teams on the web. OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online: -Users may be unable to view image files and HTML files in OneDrive for Business app and OneDrive for Business on the web. – Users may be unable to download folders from SharePoint Online. – Additionally users may experience issues with image viewing, video streaming, and multi-file download in SharePoint Online. – Users may be unable to play videos in Microsoft Stream Current status: We’re observing improvements in the affected functionalities after we reverted the impacting update, and we’re continuing to monitor for a period to ensure these problems are comprehensively resolved for all users. Scope of impact: Users who are attempting to perform file-related operations within various Microsoft 365 services may be impacted. Start time: Thursday, June 13, 2024, at 12:30 AM UTC Root cause: A deployment for one of our file operation services is causing impact. Next update by: Thursday, June 13, 2024, at 10:00 AM UTC

Bitdefender loaded a bad file so in most case if you look at this it will of a issue

To all my partners login to Gravity Zone and review but it is easier to look at say multiple desktops (Show)

The error is this: ( even though you are a partner please take the time to do random check on your clients IMPORTANT) I have already reported it to Romania

Update Process Failed because the endpoint could not resolve the update server address Please contact your system administrator. Error-1002

For at least the time being go to the dashboard and grab all the systems on line and run a UPDATE task that will for the time being bring it back on line and clean.

One last thing Bitdefender uses O365 and MailChimp..in the case if you are as concerned about security as myself I use GEO blocking globally except the US please start using to protect your clients, for the time being until Bitdefender fixs the issue mail will at best be random but your client will be protected.

In my mail filter product we can activate for you.

If you are struggling with your RMMs system lack of support come on board as a partner

Roy Miehe | MspPortal Partners Inc. | Ceo/President

Security Software Distributor: Bitdefender , Barracuda, Phishing Simulation & Cyber Security Training

“Where Service and Technical Skills Count”