What Can WordPress Agencies Learn from the Crowdstrike Meltdown?

• Unless you’ve been in a cave (or maybe on a nice beach 🏝️), you’re keenly aware of the global IT meltdown that happened on June 19.
• An errant update from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike wreaked havoc on Windows computers around the world, bringing airlines, hospitals, banks, transportation systems, news organizations, and other critical services to their knees.
• A week later, some companies (like Delta Airlines) are still struggling to recover.
• Interestingly, Crowdstrike’s CEO, George Kurtz, was the CTO of McAfee in 2010 when a similar issue caused a global crisis for Windows XP users.
• Aside from switching to Mac (sorry, too soon?), what can we as WordPress Agency Owners learn from the Crowdstrike fiasco?
• Check our own systems. Matt Mullenweg reflected on the Make WordPress blog that the disaster “is a good opportunity for us to brainstorm and review our defense in depth around updates… It’s our ethical duty as engineers to make sure these systems fail gracefully when something goes wrong, because it’s guaranteed that it will at some point.”
• Communicate with empathy. Crowdstrike has been criticized for, among many other things, being factual but without empathy in their initial communications. Later statements were better.
• Offer meaningful compensation. Crowdstrike attempted to placate affected customers with a $10 Uber Eats voucher. Many felt this was laughingly insufficient, and many of the vouches failed when used. A token gesture can sometimes make things worse rather than better.

Google Makes a U-Turn on Third-Party Cookies

• Google has surprisingly (?) reversed its decision to phase out third-party cookies in the Chrome browser.
• Instead, they have opted for a more advertiser-friendly approach while still providing privacy options that allow users to make choices.
• The Privacy Sandbox initiative will continue, but it will not fully replace third-party cookies as planned.
• This decision follows feedback from developers, publishers, regulators, and the advertising industry.
• Chrome default settings will likely continue to allow third-party cookies for most users.
• This move represents a significant shift from the 2020 announcement to eliminate cookies within a few years.
• Regulators had expressed concerns about potential unfair advantage for Google over competitors, but exact details of new privacy options in the Chrome browser not yet revealed.
• Read about the reversal on Mashable. This story will continue to unfold as Google releases more details.

WooCommerce Announces Roadmap for 2024 and Beyond

• Beau Lebens, Head of Engineering for Woo, has published an update to the WooCommerce roadmap on the Woo Developer Blog.
• A new developer newsletter has been planned along with improvements to documentation and a reimagined Woo Developer Blog.
• Comprehensive guides to new and existing features, best practices, and tutorials will be produced to empower developers to focus on extensibility, block development, and theme customization.
• Blocks are the future of WooCommerce, and developers are encouraged to move away from shortcodes and legacy APIs.
• The WooCommerce REST API will be improved with a focus on backward compatibility.
• Other areas targeted for improvement include product management, order fulfillment, and the checkout experience.
• See the full breakdown of the new Woo Map at SearchEngineJournal.

• This Webflow user experienced a 32x price increase overnight ($468/yr to $15,000) and they gave him one week to pay up or move out. Yikes! Read the Tweet here.
• How do you know when your WordPress database needs to be repaired, and how do you do it? Check out this easy-to-follow guide.
• Rabbit Hole Alert: Give Google Feud a shot (note: you’ll need to swap from dark to light mode to play)