3 ms·

CrowdStrike CEO apologizes for tech outage

18 points by Bluestein 2y ago

seanthemon 2y ago
Not sure "My bad G" is gonna cut it
ungreased0675 2y ago
The statement is worded to imply CrowdStrike is working to get everyone’s systems back up. In reality it’s local IT that has to remediate the problem.
- janice1999 2y ago
  And it was random people on Reddit providing strangers with support to quickly recover.
  - giancarlostoro 2y ago
    By the time my IT guy got to me, I knew what the solution was, I just needed a decryption key.
    - Bluestein 2y ago
      That sounds ominous. So sorry.-
  - Bluestein 2y ago
    (What was that saying again "privatize the profits and socialize the burdens"?)
swozey 2y ago
He's a billionaire and was a CXO at McAffee during another breach/hack. Go after him. We'll find out how many people died in a few weeks/months.
- Bluestein 2y ago
  Re: Compensation, as per MarketWatch: "Kurtz’s total compensation was 237 times that of the median compensation of CrowdStrike’s employees and was more than that of five of the CEOs of the group of tech companies known as the Magnificent Seven. The only more highly compensated CEOs among that group last year were Apple Inc.’s AAPL, +0.06% Tim Cook at $63.2 million and Microsoft Corp.’s MSFT, -0.74% Satya Nadella at $48.5 million. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia Corp. NVDA, -2.61% — which saw its stock soar 214.9% in the fiscal year through January — received $34.2 million in total compensation last year."
  - lukevp 2y ago
    he doesn’t even make a million in cash, most of his comp is in stock in a company he founded but only owns 0.5% of, which is gonna hurt bad after this. Elon gets billions in stock tranches and isn’t even mentioned here (because it’s performance based, I assume).
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
adrr 2y ago
Interesting to see how this was caused. Was it moving a person from the sales org to CTO? Aggressive cost cutting like laying off QA or moving from the valley to Austin? Company is done like Solarwinds.
- Bluestein 2y ago
  Adding to the injury, it would appear other bad actors are impersonating CrowdStrike to further nefarious ends ...
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- lukevp 2y ago
  As someone from Austin (now live elsewhere) this remark is really interesting to me. Have there been companies that have moved from the valley to Austin and seen significantly worse outcomes and the move can be pointed to as a reason? I can imagine why it would be so, but if you have examples that would be even better!
  - adrr 2y ago
    It was statement on moving especially for cost reasons. See Boeing move from Seattle.
  - drivingmenuts 2y ago
    [dead]
rdtsc 2y ago
> "We're deeply sorry for the impact that we've caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this, including our company “We’re sorry for you, but think of us, we should all be sorry for poor us, too!” He did ok at first but couldn’t help including themselves in the victims list. And unless they are sending workers to reboot customers’ machines, they are not really helping as much as they imply.
- Bluestein 2y ago
  > And unless they are sending workers to reboot customers’ machines, they are not really helping as much as they imply. That's the (further) thing that makes this sleazy beyond any measure: Not only the whole "feel sorry for us too!" thing, but how they are bending these statements to imply they have some part - any part - in any reparations. As mentioned upthread, the burden is being borne by others. Not them.-
- lukevp 2y ago
  I think this outage is easily avoidable with better processes, and I have no skin in the game (was unaffected personally), but I don’t really see anything wrong with including the company. He basically flushed everyone’s stock down the toilet and possibly doomed the company in the long term, and lots of people like having jobs and it’s disruptful to them. Do you think this is appropriate in general, just shouldn’t be in the public statement and instead in an all-hands? Or would apologizing to the company always be seen as in bad taste to you?
  - rdtsc 2y ago
    That's fair point. But I would have done it as two separate messages: one for internal use, and one for the customers. Otherwise putting themselves on the same kind of level as hospitals and 911 centers which were impacted kind of ruins the apology.
philipwhiuk 2y ago
I have four questions for Kurtz: 1. In 2010 you were CTO of McAfee when they shipped DAT file version 5958 which caused thousands of computers to crash. In 2024 you’re CEO of CrowdStrike which has caused millions of computers to crash. Why haven’t you learned from your mistake the first time and how many do you aim to crash in 2038? 2. McAfee was forced to sell itself to Intel as a result. Who do you think will buy CrowdStrike once this debacle is over? 3. You left McAfee because you saw a laptop on a plane take 15 minutes to upgrade McAfee’s software. What do you have to say to everyone who was on a plane that was grounded for hours because of the CrowdStrike upgrade? 4. You were paid 46 million USD for the previous year. How much do you think you personally owe in compensation for your latest blunder?
- chad1n 2y ago
  Let's be honest, he will resign in 2 weeks and move to the next company to be a glorified salesman. I wonder if the companies affected by this will sue Crowdstrike and the CEO or he'll just leave in peace pretending he did a good job there.
  - Bluestein 2y ago
    > and how many do you aim to crash in 2038? Lets really really hope none (get crashed).- PS. I can totally see some semi-sentient AI going down, while - by then - we all depend on it for nearly everything, or, many things ...
  - late2part 2y ago
    You don't know George at all.
- yread 2y ago
  wow 2010 is as far back as 2038 is in the future!
  - partomniscient 2y ago
    Time ends at 3:14:08 UTC on January 19, 2038. I don't think we can explicitly blame Kurtz for this one though.
breadwinner 2y ago
Microsoft needs to apologize too... they recommended CrowdStrike to customers. See for example: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune/protect/crowdstrike-falcon-mtd-connector-integration https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune/protect/crowdst... Apparently there was no vetting of this company before allowing them to mess with the Windows kernel. Apple has more vetting before they will let even a TODO list app into their app store. What should Microsoft have done? Require CrowdStrike to have documented processes, and require periodic (like every 6 months) third-party auditing that they have the right processes, and they are complying with their own processes. SOC 2 requires this, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_and_Organization_Controls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_and_Organization_Contro...
- Neywiny 2y ago
  I guess I agree Microsoft shouldn't be endorsing like this, but access to the kernel is a good thing for other developers. What IT overall should've done was even 1 day of rolling updates. Just something to test it before deploying world-wide. I feel for my company's IT but if (and idk how it's deployed, maybe they can't) they could not deploy updated to everyone at the same time, that would've fixed this.
- iscoelho 2y ago
  Microsoft allows kernel modules freely [1]. Microsoft does have a process for signing kernel modules, but it is aimed against malware and does not discriminate on the nature of the module [2]. Apple removed support for kernel extensions in Big Sur [3]. Before that, you could sign kernel extensions as long as your Developer ID was permitted, without any requirement to submit the kernel extension to Apple for review [4]. Ironically, the main justification for Apple removing kexts was system stability, because a majority of companies are incapable of writing stable kernel extensions. Nonetheless, Microsoft is historically more restrictive here than Apple. [1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/kernel/ https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/k... [2] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/install/kernel-mode-code-signing-requirements--windows-vista-and-later- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/i... [3] https://support.apple.com/en-us/120363 https://support.apple.com/en-us/120363 [4] https://developer.apple.com/help/account/reference/supported-capabilities-macos https://developer.apple.com/help/account/reference/supported... edit: I would like to add, Windows can't just remove kernel modules. It would be a bloodbath. Apple can only get away with it because they're Apple.
floam 2y ago
https://archive.is/KhRDl https://archive.is/KhRDl
blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
He’s a non technical founder and CEO. I’m not surprised to see this failure from them. In my experience people from backgrounds like sales or finance have no competency for leading technology companies. And that’s most companies today. Yet they’re continually propped up by their peers above leaders that possess technical and other skills, and can actually make the right choices in guiding their company and product.
- __alexander 2y ago
  You have no idea what you are talking about. George Kurtz authored the Hacking Exposed book over 25 years ago. That’s not really a sign of a non-technical person.

18 points by Bluestein 2y ago

Not sure "My bad G" is gonna cut it

The statement is worded to imply CrowdStrike is working to get everyone’s systems back up. In reality it’s local IT that has to remediate the problem.

janice1999 2y ago
And it was random people on Reddit providing strangers with support to quickly recover.
- giancarlostoro 2y ago
  By the time my IT guy got to me, I knew what the solution was, I just needed a decryption key.
  - Bluestein 2y ago
    That sounds ominous. So sorry.-
- Bluestein 2y ago
  (What was that saying again "privatize the profits and socialize the burdens"?)

swozey 2y ago

He's a billionaire and was a CXO at McAffee during another breach/hack. Go after him. We'll find out how many people died in a few weeks/months.

Bluestein 2y ago
Re: Compensation, as per MarketWatch: "Kurtz’s total compensation was 237 times that of the median compensation of CrowdStrike’s employees and was more than that of five of the CEOs of the group of tech companies known as the Magnificent Seven. The only more highly compensated CEOs among that group last year were Apple Inc.’s AAPL, +0.06% Tim Cook at $63.2 million and Microsoft Corp.’s MSFT, -0.74% Satya Nadella at $48.5 million. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia Corp. NVDA, -2.61% — which saw its stock soar 214.9% in the fiscal year through January — received $34.2 million in total compensation last year."
- lukevp 2y ago
  he doesn’t even make a million in cash, most of his comp is in stock in a company he founded but only owns 0.5% of, which is gonna hurt bad after this. Elon gets billions in stock tranches and isn’t even mentioned here (because it’s performance based, I assume).
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]

adrr 2y ago

Interesting to see how this was caused. Was it moving a person from the sales org to CTO? Aggressive cost cutting like laying off QA or moving from the valley to Austin? Company is done like Solarwinds.

Bluestein 2y ago
Adding to the injury, it would appear other bad actors are impersonating CrowdStrike to further nefarious ends ...
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
lukevp 2y ago
As someone from Austin (now live elsewhere) this remark is really interesting to me. Have there been companies that have moved from the valley to Austin and seen significantly worse outcomes and the move can be pointed to as a reason? I can imagine why it would be so, but if you have examples that would be even better!
- adrr 2y ago
  It was statement on moving especially for cost reasons. See Boeing move from Seattle.
- drivingmenuts 2y ago
  [dead]

rdtsc 2y ago

> "We're deeply sorry for the impact that we've caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this, including our company “We’re sorry for you, but think of us, we should all be sorry for poor us, too!” He did ok at first but couldn’t help including themselves in the victims list. And unless they are sending workers to reboot customers’ machines, they are not really helping as much as they imply.

Bluestein 2y ago
> And unless they are sending workers to reboot customers’ machines, they are not really helping as much as they imply. That's the (further) thing that makes this sleazy beyond any measure: Not only the whole "feel sorry for us too!" thing, but how they are bending these statements to imply they have some part - any part - in any reparations. As mentioned upthread, the burden is being borne by others. Not them.-
lukevp 2y ago
I think this outage is easily avoidable with better processes, and I have no skin in the game (was unaffected personally), but I don’t really see anything wrong with including the company. He basically flushed everyone’s stock down the toilet and possibly doomed the company in the long term, and lots of people like having jobs and it’s disruptful to them. Do you think this is appropriate in general, just shouldn’t be in the public statement and instead in an all-hands? Or would apologizing to the company always be seen as in bad taste to you?
- rdtsc 2y ago
  That's fair point. But I would have done it as two separate messages: one for internal use, and one for the customers. Otherwise putting themselves on the same kind of level as hospitals and 911 centers which were impacted kind of ruins the apology.

philipwhiuk 2y ago

I have four questions for Kurtz: 1. In 2010 you were CTO of McAfee when they shipped DAT file version 5958 which caused thousands of computers to crash. In 2024 you’re CEO of CrowdStrike which has caused millions of computers to crash. Why haven’t you learned from your mistake the first time and how many do you aim to crash in 2038? 2. McAfee was forced to sell itself to Intel as a result. Who do you think will buy CrowdStrike once this debacle is over? 3. You left McAfee because you saw a laptop on a plane take 15 minutes to upgrade McAfee’s software. What do you have to say to everyone who was on a plane that was grounded for hours because of the CrowdStrike upgrade? 4. You were paid 46 million USD for the previous year. How much do you think you personally owe in compensation for your latest blunder?

chad1n 2y ago
Let's be honest, he will resign in 2 weeks and move to the next company to be a glorified salesman. I wonder if the companies affected by this will sue Crowdstrike and the CEO or he'll just leave in peace pretending he did a good job there.
- Bluestein 2y ago
  > and how many do you aim to crash in 2038? Lets really really hope none (get crashed).- PS. I can totally see some semi-sentient AI going down, while - by then - we all depend on it for nearly everything, or, many things ...
- late2part 2y ago
  You don't know George at all.
yread 2y ago
wow 2010 is as far back as 2038 is in the future!
- partomniscient 2y ago
  Time ends at 3:14:08 UTC on January 19, 2038. I don't think we can explicitly blame Kurtz for this one though.

breadwinner 2y ago

Microsoft needs to apologize too... they recommended CrowdStrike to customers. See for example: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune/protect/crowdstrike-falcon-mtd-connector-integration https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune/protect/crowdst... Apparently there was no vetting of this company before allowing them to mess with the Windows kernel. Apple has more vetting before they will let even a TODO list app into their app store. What should Microsoft have done? Require CrowdStrike to have documented processes, and require periodic (like every 6 months) third-party auditing that they have the right processes, and they are complying with their own processes. SOC 2 requires this, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_and_Organization_Controls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_and_Organization_Contro...

Neywiny 2y ago
I guess I agree Microsoft shouldn't be endorsing like this, but access to the kernel is a good thing for other developers. What IT overall should've done was even 1 day of rolling updates. Just something to test it before deploying world-wide. I feel for my company's IT but if (and idk how it's deployed, maybe they can't) they could not deploy updated to everyone at the same time, that would've fixed this.
iscoelho 2y ago
Microsoft allows kernel modules freely [1]. Microsoft does have a process for signing kernel modules, but it is aimed against malware and does not discriminate on the nature of the module [2]. Apple removed support for kernel extensions in Big Sur [3]. Before that, you could sign kernel extensions as long as your Developer ID was permitted, without any requirement to submit the kernel extension to Apple for review [4]. Ironically, the main justification for Apple removing kexts was system stability, because a majority of companies are incapable of writing stable kernel extensions. Nonetheless, Microsoft is historically more restrictive here than Apple. [1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/kernel/ https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/k... [2] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/install/kernel-mode-code-signing-requirements--windows-vista-and-later- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/i... [3] https://support.apple.com/en-us/120363 https://support.apple.com/en-us/120363 [4] https://developer.apple.com/help/account/reference/supported-capabilities-macos https://developer.apple.com/help/account/reference/supported... edit: I would like to add, Windows can't just remove kernel modules. It would be a bloodbath. Apple can only get away with it because they're Apple.

floam 2y ago

https://archive.is/KhRDl https://archive.is/KhRDl

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago

He’s a non technical founder and CEO. I’m not surprised to see this failure from them. In my experience people from backgrounds like sales or finance have no competency for leading technology companies. And that’s most companies today. Yet they’re continually propped up by their peers above leaders that possess technical and other skills, and can actually make the right choices in guiding their company and product.

__alexander 2y ago
You have no idea what you are talking about. George Kurtz authored the Hacking Exposed book over 25 years ago. That’s not really a sign of a non-technical person.