Top 5 stories of the week: Penske buys largest Ford dealership; the economics of EV ownership
A quick look at the top automotive stories of the week as determined by reader interest.
A massive tech outage is causing worldwide disruptions. Here’s what we know
NEW YORK (AP) — Much of the world faced online disarray Friday as a widespread technology outage affected companies and services across industries — grounding flights, knocking banks and hospital systems offline and media outlets off air.
At the heart of the massive disruption is CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm that provides software to scores of companies worldwide. The company says the problem occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows, noting that the issue behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack.
Gerald Leong/Orlando Sentinel
Numerous passengers wait in front of a black display board at the capital’s Berlin Brandenburg Airport, in Schönefeld, Germany, Friday July 19, 2024, after a widespread technology outage disrupted flights, banks, media outlets and companies around the world. (Christoph Soeder/dpa via AP)
CrowdStrike has said a fix is on the way. Still, chaos deepened hours after the problem was first detected.
Here’s what you need to know.
How did Friday’s global outage happen?
Friday’s disruptions began when a faulty update was pushed out from CrowdStrike for one of its tools, “Falcon.” In a statement about the ongoing situation, the company said the defect was found “in a single content update for Windows hosts” — noting that Mac and Linux systems were not impacted.
Pennsylvania dealership employees sue CDK, say cyberattacks risked their data
Five more dealership employees have sued CDK Global in the U.S. Northern District of Illinois, alleging the cyberattacks suffered by the dealership management system in June threatened their personal information. Michael Paul Carvelli, Michael Robert Carvelli, Christopher Gordish, Neil Schuetz and Bradley White, who all live in Pennsylvania and work for unspecified Pennsylvania dealerships, said their jobs required them to supply personal information to their dealerships, which all used CDK.
Florida anti-woke banking law is national security risk, Treasury Dept. warns
WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department is warning that state laws – including one in Florida – that restrict banks from considering environmental, social and governance factors could harm efforts to address money laundering and terrorism financing.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter sent Thursday to lawmakers. The letter singled out a law signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in May that says it would be an “unsafe and unsound practice” for banks to consider non-financial factors when doing business. The letter concludes that “such laws create uncertainty and may inhibit” national security efforts.
Conservative Republicans such as DeSantis have sought to block environmental and socially conscious standards for investing, saying that such initiatives can lead to unfair discrimination based on political beliefs and harm legitimate businesses. They say that considering environmental, social and corporate-governance issues, or ESG, before deciding whether to invest is woke behavior gone amok.
David Hill, pioneer of GM's overseas operations, dies at 97
David Hill, a raconteur with extraordinary international tales, served many roles during a decadeslong career at GM.