Do not open any CrowdStrike troubleshooting emails! It's all fake!

Whenever something big happens in the tech world, scammers don't slow down.

Here's what's going on with the CrowdStrike troubleshooting email and why you should ignore it.

What is CrowdStrike troubleshooting email?

As you can imagine, the CrowdStrike bug caused companies to panic. Many companies sought solutions from Microsoft or CrowdStrike, both of which eventually announced updates and tools to get PCs working properly again. Unfortunately, as panic spreads, scammers are not slow either.

CrowdStrike has identified a widespread scam using the latest incident as bait. As described on the CrowdStrike blog, scammers took a copy of Microsoft's advice on how to fix computers affected by CrowdStrike. They then pasted it into a Word document and added a Word macro designed to load the Daolpu malware onto the target PC. They then email malware-infected Word documents to everyone in hopes of ensnaring a victim.

When someone receives an email with a Word document infected with malware, they download it to learn how to fix the CrowdStrike blue screen error. If they enable Word macros, Daolpu malware will download to the victim's PC. From here, Daolpu steals cookies and login information from the victim's browser and sends it back to the scammer.

What to do if you receive a CrowdStrike troubleshooting email?

Luckily, the CrowdStrike troubleshooting email scam requires quite a bit of interaction to succeed. Not only do you need to receive emails, but you also need to download the Word document and enable macros. Some quality antivirus applications will detect whether a Word document contains macros and will block the download before it occurs.

Even if it is on your PC, Word will warn you that the document contains macros and will not allow them to activate without your explicit permission. This scam is a good learning experience for a general rule: If you don't know where the Word document came from, never enable macros. Who knows what lurks in there?

Is there any need to worry about CrowdStrike?

If you received a CrowdStrike troubleshooting email, you may be wondering: Does the CrowdStrike error affect my PC? Luckily, if you're reading this email from your personal computer, you can rest assured that you're not affected by CrowdStrike.

Remember, CrowdStrike is an enterprise-oriented security suite designed to help organizations protect themselves. It is extremely likely that your personal computer does not use CrowdStrike as its antivirus software; This is like installing bulletproof glass in a regular car. And since you don't have CrowdStrike on your system, you're not affected by the recent outage.

If someone claims that your PC is at risk because of CrowdStrike, there's a high chance they're trying to scare you. Don't trust them; CrowdStrike is not a hidden service on your Windows PC, nor is it something commonly downloaded on personal PCs.

The CrowdStrike troubleshooting scam is quite despicable, exploiting fear to spread malware. Luckily, if you get it on your personal computer, you have nothing to worry about. If you're using it, don't trust a random email; Instead, use Microsoft's recovery tool or read CrowdStrike's documentation on the outage for more information.

Lesley Montoya

Update 01 August 2024