How a Simple Barcode Reader Helped Fix Some Computers

An Australian subsidiary of audit, consulting and financial advisory firm Grant Thornton used a barcode reader to repair computers damaged by a power outage on July 19.

Airports are at a complete standstill, hospitals are out of service, TV channels are unable to broadcast their programs… The unprecedented computer outage on July 19, caused by a faulty update to the Crowdstrike antivirus software, affected many sectors.

On that day, 8.5 million Windows computers were affected, including those of the Australian branch of auditing, consulting and financial advisory firm Grant Thornton. To repair the hundreds of affected computers and servers, a special tool was used: a barcode reader, the site reported. The record.

Quick fix

As the American media reported, all computers were encrypted using Microsoft's Bitlocker tool. This tool allows you to lock access to data on a computer, which can be accessed by entering a password. But after restarting these devices, a 48-character recovery key was required. The result: each employee had to get their own device key to enter manually. A particularly long and tedious task.

As the log says, Robert Woltz, the company's chief systems engineer, recalled that when a computer was turned on, the device could recognize the barcode reader as a keyboard. In other words, by plugging in the accessory, it was possible to scan a barcode so that the device would automatically replace the pattern with a long sequence of numbers, without having to type them in manually each time.

The subsidiary didn't want to give out these Bitlocker keys over the phone or in person to “already stressed” employees, so it turned to a barcode reader, which works like a keyboard, to automate the process.

Specifically, Robert Waltz and his colleagues wrote a computer code that converted the encryption keys into barcodes displayed on the screen. In addition to the barcode, this script also generated the password needed to repair the computer.

Scanning a barcode with a reader was the equivalent of typing a key on a keyboard, instantly, and without the risk of error. The company bought several barcode readers and asked its employees who worked too far to come into the office with their computers to fix them. Each computer needed only three to five minutes of intervention, and they were all fixed by lunchtime, according to the subsidiary.