Washington D.C.— George Kurtz, CEO of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, has been summoned to testify before the U.S. Congress following a massive tech outage that disrupted critical services worldwide. The outage, which occurred on Friday, grounded flights, knocked banks and hospital systems offline, and affected millions of users globally.
In a letter addressed to Kurtz, Representatives Mark E. Green of Tennessee and Andrew Garbarino of New York, both Republicans leading the House Homeland Security Committee, expressed their concerns over the incident. “While we appreciate CrowdStrike’s response and coordination with stakeholders, we cannot ignore the magnitude of this incident, which some have claimed is the largest IT outage in history,” the letter stated. “Americans deserve to know in detail how this incident happened and the mitigation steps CrowdStrike is taking.”
The outage was reportedly caused by a defective software update sent by CrowdStrike to its customers, affecting approximately 8.5 million machines running Microsoft’s Windows operating system. The disruptions led to widespread operational challenges across various sectors, including airlines, banks, hospitals, and other critical infrastructure.
CrowdStrike acknowledged the issue and stated that a “significant number” of the affected computers are back in operation. In a blog post released late Sunday, the company announced the implementation of a new technique to accelerate remediation efforts. The process of restoring the systems has been arduous, often requiring IT teams to manually delete files on the affected machines.
The incident has had a significant financial impact on the Texas-based company. Since the meltdown, CrowdStrike’s shares have plummeted by more than 20%, erasing billions of dollars from its market value.
The scale of the outage has also attracted the attention of federal regulators. Lina Khan, Chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, commented on the situation, saying, “All too often these days, a single glitch results in a system-wide outage, affecting industries from healthcare and airlines to banks and auto-dealers. Millions of people and businesses pay the price. These incidents reveal how concentration can create fragile systems.”
CrowdStrike has stated that it is in active communication with congressional committees and is cooperating fully with the inquiry. As customers and regulators await a detailed explanation of the events leading up to the outage, the call for increased transparency and accountability within the tech industry grows louder.
The upcoming congressional testimony by Kurtz is expected to shed light on the circumstances surrounding the outage and the steps being taken to prevent such incidents in the future. The event underscores the critical importance of cybersecurity and reliable IT infrastructure in an increasingly interconnected world.
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CrowdStrike CEO called to testify to Congress over global tech outage
cgtn.com
