Crowdstrike is subpoenaed: Homeland Security wants to analyze IT outages

In a published letter, Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz is urged to sit down with US authorities to clarify the causes and effects of the IT failures in detail. Although most of the devices are up and running again, the incident will have significant repercussions, write Mark E. Green, Head of Homeland Security and Andrew R. Garbarino, Head of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection at Homeland Security. They are demanding that Kurtz report to them by July 24 - and also make an appearance.

Last Friday, a faulty update caused Windows devices to fail. Screens around the world now only show a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). This affected airports, banks, supermarkets and some hospitals had to postpone planned operations. According to the signatories of the letter, 3,000 commercial flights have been canceled in the USA alone, 12,000 flights have been delayed and air traffic has still not fully recovered. In the USA, the 911 emergency number has also been affected by outages in the meantime. The error had a massive impact on the global economy.

"Given these far-reaching implications, we are relieved that you have confirmed that '[t]his is not a security incident or a cyber attack'. However, this incident must serve as a broader warning about the national security risks associated with network dependency," it continues. The signatories are also concerned that China and Russia could exploit the incident - and are closely monitoring the authorities' response.

Kurtz himself last posted a blog post from Crowdstrike on X on Saturday, the day after the major outages. It is entitled "Technical Details: Falcon Content Update for Windows Hosts". It explains that the "channel file" with the number 291 was incorrect. The content of the file has been corrected. Crowdstrike also assures that it will continue to investigate the background to the error.

(emw)