CrowdStrike CEO Called to Testify After Global Tech Outage

In a significant development, U.S. House leaders are urging CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz to testify before Congress regarding the cybersecurity firm's involvement in a massive tech outage that disrupted flights, banking, and healthcare services worldwide. The incident, attributed to a faulty software update, affected approximately 8.5 million computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system, prompting urgent calls for accountability from lawmakers. The House Homeland Security Committee, led by Republicans, expressed their concerns in a letter to Kurtz, emphasizing the need for a thorough explanation of the incident, which has been described as potentially the largest IT outage in history. Representatives Mark E. Green and Andrew Garbarino highlighted the importance of transparency, stating that Americans deserve detailed information on how the outage occurred and what measures CrowdStrike is implementing to prevent future incidents. CrowdStrike has reported that a significant number of the affected machines are now operational, but the recovery process has been labor-intensive, often requiring IT teams to manually delete files. The company has announced plans to introduce new techniques to expedite remediation efforts and is in communication with congressional committees regarding the situation. The fallout from the outage has been severe, with CrowdStrike's stock plummeting over 20%, resulting in billions of dollars lost in market value. The incident has also drawn the attention of government regulators, including the Federal Trade Commission, which raised concerns about the fragility of systems reliant on concentrated technology providers.