On Monday, July 22, 2024, the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, in Washington, DC, requested the presence of George Kurtz, CEO of CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc., to set a hearing schedule with the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection by no later than 5:00 PM today, June 24, 2024.

The House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman, Representative Mark Green, M.D., a Tennessee Republican, and Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Chairman, Representative Andrew Garbarino, a New York Republican and chairman, called upon Kurtz in response to the global Information Technology (IT) outage, caused by a defect in CrowdStrike’s software update that impacted computer systems around the world run by Microsoft Windows. In the letter, they began by stating, “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.” They then elaborated on the extensive damages caused by the faulty update, affecting various sectors globally, “In less than one day, we have seen major impacts to key functions of the global economy, including aviation, healthcare, banking, media, and emergency services.” Lastly, they emphasized the importance of accountability and transparency in handling the incident, “Recognizing that Americans will undoubtedly feel the lasting, real-world consequences of this incident, they deserve to know in detail how this incident happened and the mitigation steps CrowdStrike is taking.” This sequence of statements highlights the severity of the incident, its widespread impact, and the need for clear communication about its resolution.

Considering the global urgency and far-reaching effects of the incident, it was further stated in the letter, “However, this incident must serve as a broader warning about the national security risks associated with network dependency.” Additionally, the House Committee highlights potential issues and threats that may emerge, especially the hacker groups just waiting to exploit the vulnerabilities of the systems that were affected, “Malicious cyber actors backed by nation-states, such as China and Russia, are watching our response to this incident closely. In fact, as CrowdStrike relayed in a recent blog post, malicious actors presumably targeting your Latin American customers have already seized the moment and sought to exploit the vulnerability.”

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