In the early morning hours of Friday, July 19, a single software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike sparked an unprecedented global IT outage. The incident continues to impact organizations, governments, and end users around the world, disrupting everything from mission-critical infrastructure and airlines to hospitals, retailers, and more.
We at 11:11 Systems understand the gravity of this unfortunate situation and want to wish all of those affected a quick and complete recovery. We also recognize the challenges inherent to safeguarding mission-critical infrastructure and data and are available to assist in any ongoing recovery efforts.
WHAT TO DO NOW
CrowdStrike is actively working with impacted customers to resolve any remaining issues, answer questions, and dispel any lingering misconceptions.
For example, the root cause of the outage can be traced to a faulty update from CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor software, which caused Windows machines to crash and enter a recovery boot loop. The issue has since been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed. Mac and Linux hosts were not impacted and CrowdStrike is emphatic that this was not a cyberattack.
However, please be on guard for cyber criminals and bad actors looking to capitalize on this situation. In the wake of such an event, we believe it is essential to remain vigilant against cyber threats such as social engineering, phishing attempts, credential theft, and deepfake video and voice calls. We strongly recommend communicating only with authorized vendor representatives after verifying their identities.
We are prepared to assist organizations impacted by this situation in any way we can.
LESSONS LEARNED
If anything, the CrowdStrike outage underscores just how fragile our modern IT infrastructure can be. To prevent similar disruptions in the future, organizations must adopt a more strategic and comprehensive approach to IT management and resilience. This would include eliminating single points of failure and investing in disaster recovery and business continuity planning.
For example, CrowdStrike rather quickly identified the issue as a software malfunction rather than a cyberattack, illustrating that poor update management and monitoring can be just as detrimental in causing system outages as inadequate cybersecurity measures.
For those 11:11 customers utilizing 11:11 Managed OS Services — which delivers OS updates and patches along with 24x7x365 monitoring and alerting — Friday’s global outage was relatively straightforward to navigate. With managed OS, customers have the ability to test major software updates and can also “roll back” to a previous version of the software, if needed.
In today’s fast-paced, global IT environment, downtime is simply not an option. Whether it’s malicious or merely accidental — as in the case of the CrowdStrike outage — a single outage can be devastating for businesses.
This incident may also introduce a potential new vector in the fight against cybercrime, as it illuminates the possibility that a coordinated attack on mission critical assets, such as supply chain, could be orchestrated through an automated update.
In our experience, it’s not a matter of if, but when, your business continuity and disaster recovery plans will be tested. When that time comes, be sure you can confidently and seamlessly keep your organization up and running. With decades of experience and expertise in business continuity and disaster recovery and a wide range of services and solutions — including consulting services, dedicated managed recovery and cyber incident recovery programs, and industry-leading self-service and fully managed solutions — 11:11 has you (and your data) covered, no matter what.
