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WHY IT'S IMPORTANT
CrowdStrike's glitchy update to its security software crashed
computers powered by Microsoft's 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)
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