On July 19th, CrowdStrike (a cybersecurity platform provider) released an update that caused crashes on 8.5 million Microsoft Windows PCs and servers. Instead of starting up, computers showed “blue screens of death,” closing ports, preventing consumers from using ATMs, and delaying medical procedures.1
While CrowdStrike released a fix the same day, enterprises had to undertake an arduous process of manually rebooting tens of thousands of servers and PCs in safe mode and deleting files associated with the faulty update before installing a fix.
This was not a cyberattack, nor is it unique. There have been several recent, widespread software outages that created havoc across entire value chains, like this year’s ransomware attacks that prevented auto dealers from doing business and healthcare providers from receiving payments, or the unstable, aged systems that stranded holiday travelers a couple of years ago.
Since the outage started, we’ve had dozens of discussions with business and technology executives wrestling with its impact. Already, technology teams have mobilized to fix the problems their companies face. There is an important role for senior business leaders as well in providing resources, support, and guidance. Here we present questions they should ask in determining how to mitigate the impact of this event—and reduce the risk of the next one.