Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike faced tough questioning in the US Congress on Tuesday about its role in a massive IT outage that happened in July.
The problem started when a bad software update from CrowdStrike caused millions of computers to stop working on July 19.
This affected many services, including payment systems, flights, and even hospitals, forcing them to cancel appointments and delay operations.
Adam Meyers, a senior executive from CrowdStrike, apologized during the hearing, saying the company was “very sorry” for the disruption and promised they were doing everything to prevent it from happening again.
BBC reports that Meyers described the issue as a “perfect storm” of unfortunate events, which led to the biggest IT outage ever seen.
US lawmakers were concerned about how such a huge problem could have happened from a simple mistake and compared it to something that might be expected from a cyberattack by another country, according to the BBC.
Congressman Mark Green said that the situation was so serious that it impacted every part of the economy.
Meyers told the committee that CrowdStrike releases about 10 to 12 software updates every day, and this particular update caused the unexpected global disruption.
BBC News explains that despite the huge impact, Meyers faced less harsh criticism compared to other tech executives who have been called to testify.
The focus of the hearing was on working together with the government to ensure such incidents do not happen again.
Although CrowdStrike is cooperating, it still faces lawsuits from people and businesses affected by the outage.
Delta Airlines, for example, claimed it lost $500 million due to flight cancellations caused by the error. People also shared stories with BBC News about how the outage ruined their holidays or caused them to lose business.
Credit : BBC
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c23k4yyjxp3o