CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz Chokes Up When Asked About Global IT Outage

The world was thrown into chaos on Friday as a botched software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike caused widespread disruptions across various sectors. The CEO of CrowdStrike, George Kurtz, appeared visibly nervous and struggled to explain how a single update could have such a catastrophic impact.

The faulty update crashed countless Microsoft Windows computer systems, leading to disruptions in air travel, banking, stock markets, and more. In a statement, Kurtz admitted that a single update was responsible for the outage, but he seemed flustered when pressed for details during an interview on NBC’s Today TV show.

The interviewer questioned Kurtz about the lack of redundancy or backup systems in place to prevent such a widespread outage from occurring. The CEO stammered and had to take a drink of water before responding, a moment that has since gone viral online.

Security experts have criticized CrowdStrike for not conducting adequate quality checks before deploying the update. The update was intended to enhance cybersecurity measures for clients but instead caused one of the most significant tech outages in recent years.

CrowdStrike has since fixed the issue on their end, and Kurtz has issued an apology for the disruption. He clarified that the outage was caused by a defect in a Falcon content update for Windows hosts and assured that Mac and Linux hosts were not impacted.

Despite the chaos caused by the update, CrowdStrike is working to prevent similar incidents in the future. The incident serves as a reminder of the importance of thorough testing and quality control in software updates to prevent widespread disruptions.