CrowdStrike CEO apologizes for ‘error’ leading to worldwide IT outage | Science & Tech News
A senior executive at CrowdStrike has expressed regret for a flawed software update that resulted in a global IT outage in July.
The incident caused worldwide flight cancellations and affected various industries, including banks, healthcare, media companies, and hotel chains.
The outage disrupted internet services, impacting 8.5 million Microsoft Windows devices.
Adam Meyers, the senior vice president for counter adversary operations at CrowdStrike, acknowledged that the company released a content configuration update for its Falcon Sensor security software, leading to system crashes globally.
“We are deeply sorry for this event and are committed to preventing it from happening again,” stated Mr. Meyers.
“We have conducted a thorough review of our systems and have begun implementing measures to strengthen our content update procedures so that we can emerge from this incident as a more resilient company.”
The outage affected computer systems using Microsoft Windows.
During questioning by committee members, Mr. Meyers was asked how the incident unfolded, with lawmakers comparing its impact to that of a well-orchestrated, sophisticated cyberattack rather than a mere “mistake” within CrowdStrike’s software.
He clarified that the issue was not the result of a cyberattack or AI intervention.
Testifying before US legislators, Mr. Meyers remarked: “We are grateful for the extraordinary efforts of our customers and partners who, together with our teams, swiftly mobilized to restore systems.
“We managed to bring many customers back online within hours. I can assure you that we are addressing this with a high degree of urgency.”
File pic: Reuters
CrowdStrike attributed the problem to an “undetected error” in a software update.
A flaw in the company’s content validation system allowed “problematic content data” to go unnoticed and be rolled out to Microsoft Windows customers, resulting in the crash.
Mr. Meyers ensured that the cybersecurity firm would share “lessons learned” from the incident to prevent its recurrence.
CrowdStrike faces several lawsuits
Some individuals noted that CrowdStrike did not face as intense scrutiny by the committee as other tech executives have experienced in recent years.
The focus was on companies collaborating with committees and government entities to avert similar incidents in the future.
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Nevertheless, CrowdStrike is still facing legal action from affected individuals and businesses – the company has been sued by its shareholders and by US aviation giant Delta Airlines after the latter had to cancel numerous flights due to the system shutdown.
In the UK, the CrowdStrike outage left general practitioners unable to access systems for managing appointments, viewing patient records, or sending prescriptions to pharmacies – which also faced widespread impact, leading doctors to resort to pen and paper.
Meanwhile, airlines had to cancel or delay flights, leaving passengers stranded as their systems went offline or staff resorted to manual procedures for issuing boarding passes and luggage tags.
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Many small businesses reported significant financial losses, with their websites being offline due to the incident, costing them hundreds or thousands of pounds in sales.
