Zerodha CEO: Our Employees Use Linux Laptops To Avoid Potential Scams

Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath shared how the company coped with the recent Microsoft outage. He mentioned that most Zerodha employees, including himself, use Linux-based laptops. 

This information was initially shared in a 2023 post about Zerodha's cybersecurity measures.

Zerodha CEO wrote, “Cyber risk is one of the biggest financial risks. I heard of a single scam of Rs 20,000 crores that affected lakhs of Indians.

A precaution to significantly reduce the odds of being a victim of cyber fraud is to enable two-factor authentication (2FA) everywhere. 1/12”

Cyber risk is one of the biggest financial risks. I heard of a single scam of Rs 20,000 crores that affected lakhs of Indians.
A precaution you can take to significantly reduce the odds of being a victim of cyber fraud is to enable two-factor authentication (2FA) everywhere. 1/12

— Nithin Kamath (@Nithin0dha) July 14, 2023

Kamath reposted the same in a post dated July 20, 2024. 

In a post dated July 20, Nithin Kamath shared information about Zerodha's cybersecurity measures. 

He wrote, “Almost the entire employee base, including non-technical folks, uses Linux laptops. I use Zorin (Linux). 

Kailash's push to avoid all enterprise deals saved us yesterday.”

5. Almost the entire employee base, including non-technical folks, uses Linux laptops. I use Zorin (Linux).
Kailash's push to avoid all enterprise deals saved us yesterday. https://t.co/6whNj663bi

— Nithin Kamath (@Nithin0dha) July 20, 2024

He said that almost all employees used Linux laptops and discussed the impact of a Microsoft Windows outage caused by a flawed update from security software vendor CrowdStrike. 

Microsoft and CrowdStrike quickly addressed and fixed the issue. 

Microsoft also released an official recovery tool to help IT admins expedite the recovery process for Windows machines.

Social Media Reaction:

Online users are showing mixed reactions to Kamath's post.

One user wrote, "Linux also hackable unless you have custom coded. You should have some thing Plan B to avert such a big scale outage!!!!"

Another user commented, "I only see a tons of issues targetted to MS systems starting from ransomware to kernel upgrade lockdowns. Mac and linux are still the best options out there."

A third user replied, "Companies must use a combination of all operating systems but collaboration is a factor with increase in costs and manpower. Basically India cannot afford this."

A fourth user wrote, "This is irony of the worst, you choose to share wisdom on technology efficiency and financial loss from it. Wherein every other day your customer complains of loosing money because your application fails to execute the order."