New Software on Clerk Computers

[Biggles]

i recently noticed a new piece of software Crowd Strike Windows Sensor has been installed on both the Stake and Ward Clerk computers. I've also seen the same software installed on several FSC computers. I've searched on the internet and it appears to be legitimate antivirus type program.

What I haven't found yet, is any reference to it on any of the Church tech pages.

Anyone else seen any references to the the program?

[russellhltn]

I've seen it show up as well.

[coreydave]

I just talked to Global Services. Yes, it is the new anti-virus software that is being distributed by BigFix.

[johnshaw]

i recently noticed a new piece of software Crowd Strike Windows Sensor has been installed on both the Stake and Ward Clerk computers. I've also seen the same software installed on several FSC computers. I've searched on the internet and it appears to be legitimate antivirus type program.

What I haven't found yet, is any reference to it on any of the Church tech pages.

Anyone else seen any references to the the program?

You expected some kind of notification?

[Biggles]

You expected some kind of notification?

No I expected to see the Tech Wiki refer to this updated information!

[mmacconnell]

We use this at work, it is a great additional antivirus tool.

[RobCFrame]

I also have noticed it being pushed to our clerk computers -- but in a bad way. The first computer to receive it in late April 2023 ended up having its hard drive utilization be continuously 98+% -- to the point that they could not count tithing because CrowdStrike was so overwhelming that their browser would take 10 minutes to open up.
- Ultimately, that computer, when I attempted to start it up in SAFE MODE, ran a CHKDSK which found so many bad sectors that the computer blue screened, and the HDD is now a paperweight.

I knew nothing about this 'new' software until the GSC person told me that it was used by Church employee computers, and that they might be piloting it on some clerk computers. Today, I was told by another GSC person that it appears to be being pushed to all clerk computers -- but they only knew it because of all of the calls/complaint calls coming from us stake technology specialists.

On 2 July 2023 yet another computer has become so slow due to CrowdStrike that they also could not do their tithing count (or anything else for that matter). I looked at the PC, and reviewed the Task Manager and saw the HDD utilization at nearly 100% constantly. I stopped a few extraneous-looking threads, and it helped some -- enough that they could count tithing yesterday.

The Engineering department needs to communicate about major changes like this. I had similar problems with the old SOPHOS protection program -- but at least with that one I had the power to pause most of its actions for 4 hours, so I could at least see if it was THE problem. With CrowdStrike the local admin account has seemingly NO CONTROL to troubleshoot the computer by turning it off, even temporarily.

And, I can find nothing in this 'mess' of a tech forum from the Engineering department about CrowdStrike -- and I was told THIS FORUM area is supposed to be their main method of communication (but the GSC person did say that they seem to be about a year behind in keeping it up here -- so maybe something will show up by April 2024).

Take care!

[jdlessley]

And, I can find nothing in this 'mess' of a tech forum from the Engineering department about CrowdStrike -- and I was told THIS FORUM area is supposed to be their main method of communication (but the GSC person did say that they seem to be about a year behind in keeping it up here -- so maybe something will show up by April 2024).

The Tech Forum is not an official communication channel, official support site, or official announcement site for the Church ICS department. It is user-to-user discussion and self help. The Global Services Department help desk people often direct callers to the Tech Forum when they do not have the answers and simply because of the diverse source of experience of forum users. There is a small number of Church ICS employees who visit the forums who are quite helpful in their area of expertise or from their unit callings experiences. We attempt to keep others informed as we get further information but have no official capacity to represent any Church department.

[russellhltn]

The Tech Forum is not an official communication channel, official support site, or official announcement site for the Church ICS department.

However, the Wiki has become an official site - at least for some pages.

[ppaw1965]

You will be pleased to know, that 2 years later still have issues.
last Sunday PC became unusable. 100% disk. And now with the windows 11 update I no longer have admin rights. Crowd strike was one of the big resource users.
Trying to find out who is responsible for it has been a mission.
When I first contact GSD a few months back the IT section had no idea of Crowd Strike. Later I spoke with someone who knew it was a church installed program. But thinks its the Stake technology specialist. Being the mission we don't have one.
Their solution. The PC is 2 years old so probably need a new one.
The other issue is. When I fixed this PC and set it up in Win 10 the Branch Clerk account had full admin rights. The Guest account couldn't even install software so I was able to control what was put on the PC
Win 11. Guest account was disabled and a All Users account was created. Anyone can install just about anything, including torrent programs.
But here's the kicker. Had to update the software for the printer, I do not have the right admin privileges.
Being a branch in the mission we have no IT specialist, We have me.
I contacted the Pacific office in Auckland and spoke with a technology specialist.
This is where I first found out there's a department in SLC for the unit PC's. I wish people in the GSD knew this.
Waiting to hear back from him in Auckland.
Good news, Now I've removed a few programs that shouldn't be on here HDD is generally running 20% to 60% now and can use the PC better
If anyone has a way of contacting the techs at the ward branch PC support please let me know.