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CrowdStrike and the Law for Impacted Businesses

What Happened on Friday the 20th of July?

CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity company. On the 20th of July 2024, one fatal coding mistake led to an array of global issues. This impacted a diverse range of sectors, including banks, hospitals, and airlines.

The coding issue pertained to a “bug” in the software updates system. As a result, at least 8.5 million Microsoft Windows computers crashed and displayed the infamous “blue screen of death” throughout Friday.

How Did CrowdStrike Respond?

Since the disastrous day, Congress called CrowdStrike boss George Kurtz to respond to the IT failure. This is to ensure CrowdStrike acknowledges the magnitude of its “defect” and accounts to individuals in recognising its impact.

What is the Impact?

It is confirmed that numerous clients were unable to access their payroll software, meaning staff payments could not be processed. This will lead to a backlog of payrolls for the month’s end and delay certain employees from receiving their wages.

How Can Lawdit Help?

The CrowdStrike incident reminded companies of technology failure. In doing so, it also emphasised the possibility of cyberattacks. Lawdit can assist companies in taking a proactive response to tackle prospective cybersecurity threats. There are several strategies organisations may adopt:

  1. Risk Assessment and Planning
  2. Conduct regular risk assessments to evaluate the company’s position to defend against cyberattacks and identify any vulnerabilities.
  3. Create a comprehensive strategy including policies, procedures, and response plans assists when facing future threats.
  4. Training and Awareness
  5. Educate staff on best cybersecurity practices.
  6. Plan awareness programmes to ensure staff understand their role in protecting sensitive information.
  7. Incident Response Plan
  8. Produce an incident response plan outlining steps you will take in the event of a cybersecurity incident.
  9. Consider establishing a dedicated team for responding to security incidents.
  10. Regular Drills
  11. Hold regular drills to train staff on their responses to cyberattack scenarios.
  12. Analyse performance after drills to identify areas for improvement.
  13. Legal and Compliance
  14. Remain informed about your legal obligations to comply with relevant legal data protection regulations.
  15. Notify clients and relevant authorities if you experience a data breach.

Sources

“CrowdStrike to improve testing after ‘bug’ caused outage” (July 2024).

“CrowdStrike and Microsoft: What we know about global IT outage” (July 2024).

Letter to Mr Kurtz (July 2024).

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Written By:

Picture of Michael Coyle

Michael Coyle

Michael is Lawdit’s Principal and heads our Commercial and Intellectual Property Department. As a Solicitor Advocate, he is one of a select group of legal experts qualified to represent clients as an advocate in the Higher Courts in England and Wales. He holds a Master of Laws degree (LL.M) from Nottingham Trent University and is a guest lecturer at Southampton Solent University. He has also completed a teaching stint at the Academy of Music in Guildford where Michael taught copyright law. Michael is highly regarded for his work in all areas of intellectual property law (which includes the eCommerce and IT fields), litigation and company/commercial matters. He regularly advises on non-contentious issues including regulatory and statutory obligations and has been involved in many successful disputes, with a strong reputation for finding common sense and practical solutions for clients. In 2017, Michael was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Law from Southampton Solent University for his contribution to the University and his continued support to its students.