CrowdStrike President Michael Sentonas has admitted the company needs to get better after a worldwide IT outage caused global chaos.
The outage, sparked by a software update, disrupted flights, banks, retail, media, transport and hospitals worldwide. The IT incident caused what has been dubbed a “blue screen of death” on Windows PC devices.
Mr. Sentonas personally apologised and admitted the company got the software update “very wrong.”
The incident took place while the company was distributing a regular update using a technique it has been using for a decade.
Mr. Sentonas said that they were responding to attacks that occur “very, very quickly.” These attackers are constantly looking for ways to modify their techniques so they can be “successful in carrying out attacks.”
“Our industry has to rapidly respond, and we are always looking to see if we can put out new techniques, new updates. The update we put out, obviously as I said, we got wrong with some logic in that update,” he said.
The company has “learnt a lot” and admitted that they let their customers down, which is something they have to address, he said.
Update Failure
According to Microsoft, a software update from CrowdStrike impacted an estimated 8.5 million Windows devices.The company’s technique for the update had been stress-tested many times and regularly updated before the incident on July 19.
While Microsoft quickly released a fix, it was for the file and didn’t impact the machines in the field.
“We identified what the issue was very quickly, we’ve stopped that particular file from being propagated, but unfortunately, a lot of people around the world did get access to that file, and what it did is it exposed a logic floor which ended up in what the industry knows of and experience that people had, which is a blue screen of death,” Mr. Sentonas said.
The company has moved into a remediation process and will continue to look after and support its customers worldwide.
When asked if they were open to compensation, he said, “Absolutely.” He said those conversations have to happen and will happen.
CrowdStrike is listed on the Nasdaq, and its share price declined 13.46 percent to US$263.91 on July 22.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said on July 22 the incident had underlined the importance of software testing and embedding secure by-design principles into the software.
This followed a meeting of the National Coordination Mechanism to discuss the “ongoing fallout” from the IT outage.
“CrowdStrike confirmed they have rolled out an automatic fix for affected customers which is assisting in many cases. This will likely be the last meeting of the NCM on this issue, but agencies will continue to monitor the situation,” she said.
Dutton Suggests Carrying Cash
Meanwhile, Opposition leader Peter Dutton told 3AW radio that the global IT outage shows how vulnerable Australia is as a society.Mr. Dutton was asked if he always carried cash and admitted he is a bit of a “sucker to tap and go” because it is convenient.
“If there were a state actor or a group that took out our banking system for a week or even for a few days, we’d be stuck pretty quickly.
US Homeland Security Leaders Call on CrowdStrike to Testify
In the United States, Homeland Security chairman, Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection subcommittee chairman, Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), are calling on CrowdStrike to testify.They noted that more than 3,000 flights were cancelled and 11,800 were delayed, while surgeries were also cancelled in the United States.
“Given the urgency and global scale of this incident, we respectfully request that CrowdStrike schedule a hearing with the subcommittee on cybersecurity and infrastructure by no later than 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.”
