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Windows 3.1 saves the day during CrowdStrike outage — Southwest Airlines scrapes by with archaic OS (www.tomshardware.com)

submitted 5 months ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

109 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Southwest Airlines, the fourth largest airline in the US, is seemingly unaffected by the problematic CrowdStrike update that caused millions of computers to BSoD (Blue Screen of Death) because it used Windows 3.1. The CrowdStrike issue disrupted operations globally after a faulty update caused newer computers to freeze and stop working, with many prominent institutions, including airports and almost all US airlines, including United, Delta, and American Airlines, needing to stop flights.

Windows 3.1, launched in 1992, is likely not getting any updates. So, when CrowdStrike pushed the faulty update to all its customers, Southwest wasn’t affected (because it didn’t receive an update to begin with).

The airlines affected by the CrowdStrike update had to ground their fleets because many of their background systems refused to operate. These systems could include pilot and fleet scheduling, maintenance records, ticketing, etc. Thankfully, the lousy update did not affect aircraft systems, ensuring that everything airborne remained safe and were always in control of their pilots.

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[–] Toribor@corndog.social 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Windows 3.1 can't use modern versions of tls which means it's effectively impossible to network it securely.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 7 points 5 months ago

You just know there's an SMB share somewhere with no password, where files filled with unencrypted customer details get dumped for processing by an ancient AS400 server.