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UPDATE FAILURE A 'GUT PUNCH'

July 22, 2024

Monday 22 July 2024
Remy Varga
The Nightly


 CrowdStrike issues grovelling apology after global chaos The chief security  officer of CrowdStrike has issued a grovelling apology after a faulty  software update knocked out 8.5 million computers globally, telling customers  "we failed".
 
 Governments and businesses on Monday were scrambling to restore systems to  full capacity after an automatic update of the threat detection Falcon sensor  inadvertently wiped out the computers of hospitals, media companies and  banks.
 
 Chief security officer Shawn Henry said the Texas-based cybersecurity company  "failed" its customers and partners, describing the global systems  outage as a "gut punch".
 
 "The past two days have been the most challenging 48 hours for me over  12 plus years," said Mr Henry, a former Federal Bureau of Investigations  officer.
 
 "The confidence we built in drips over the years was lost in buckets  within hours, and it was a gut punch.
 
 "But this pales in comparison to the pain we've caused our customers and  our partners. We let down the very people we committed to protect, and to say  we're devastated is a huge understatement."
 
 Mr Henry said he and CrowdStrike were taking the outage  "personally" and said thousands of team members had been working  24/7 to restore customer systems.
 
 "The days have been long and the nights have been short, and that will  continue for the immediate future," he said.
 
 "But that is part of the promise we made to all of you when you put your  trust and protection in our hands."
 
 CrowdStrike has yet to explain why the automatic update immobilised millions  of computers and left users worldwide staring at the Microsoft "blue  screen of death" as the company did a root cause analysis to determine  what exactly went wrong.
 
 Shadow cybersecurity minister James Paterson said the outage highlighted real  issues with the resilience of the digitally connected economy.
 
 "Businesses supplying essential services must do more to ensure they  have redundancies in place if their primary IT systems go offline for any  reason," he said.
 
 "This time it was human error. Next time it could be someone acting with  malign intent.
 
 "We can't afford for our economy and society to ground to a halt if that  happens."
 
 Australian Information Security Association chair Akash Mittal said it was  important to wait for the company's full explanation instead of speculating.
 
 "A lot of people have realised how much (the CrowdStrike outage)  underscores our reliance in the modern interconnected world on technology and  highlights the need to have robust measures in place to maintain  operations."
 
 Home Affairs Minister Claire O'Neil warned scammers may attempt to exploit  the chaos as impacted sectors are restored.
 
 "People need to be wary of unexpected calls, text messages and emails  claiming to be offering help." The confidence we built in drips over the  years was lost in buckets within hours. Shawn Henry

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