US congressional panel calls on CrowdStrike CEO to testify on outage
Adds comment from CrowdStrike in paragraph five
By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, July 22 (Reuters) -The U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee has sent a letter to CrowdStrike CRWD.O CEO George Kurtz asking him to testify on last week's global tech outage.
WHY IT'S IMPORTANT
CrowdStrike's glitchy update to its security software crashed computers powered by Microsoft's MSFT.O Windows operating system on Friday, disrupting internet services across the globe and affecting a broad swath of industries including airlines, banking and healthcare. Microsoft said on Saturday about 8.5 million Windows devices were affected.
Services across industries gradually came back online later on Friday but companies were dealing with backlogs, delays, canceled flights and other issues, raising questions on how to avoid such a situation in the future and whether such critical software should remain in the hands of a few companies.
KEY QUOTES
"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 congressional panel wrote in its letter to Kurtz dated Monday. The letter was reported first by the Washington Post.
"CrowdStrike is actively in contact with relevant Congressional Committees. Briefings and other engagement timelines may be disclosed at members' discretion," a company spokesperson said.
WHAT'S NEXT
The letter urges the CEO to schedule a hearing with a subcommittee of the panel - the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection - by Wednesday.
Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Franklin Paul, Matthew Lewis and Himani Sarkar
Related Assets
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
