{"id":341731,"date":"2024-07-19T08:08:40","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T12:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chiefexecutive.net\/?p=341731"},"modified":"2024-07-19T13:52:34","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T17:52:34","slug":"the-crowdstrike-outage-what-ceos-should-do-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chiefexecutive.net\/the-crowdstrike-outage-what-ceos-should-do-today\/","title":{"rendered":"The CrowdStrike Outage: What CEOs and Boards Should Do Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

CEOs and board members woke this morning (or were awakened in the night) by word of what, for many of us, is a nightmare scenario: A IT disaster had taken down Windows-based computers across the globe.<\/a><\/p>\n

For those impacted, it’s a total disaster. But the good news (good-ish news?) is that this wasn\u2019t a deliberate attack by a foreign power, or a hacktivist collective or someone like that. This was the good guys\u2014cyber provider CrowdStrike\u2014screwing up a security update (and watching their stock fall off a table in the aftermath).<\/p>\n

But even if it is just a screw up, it is one for the record books, taking down everything from 911 systems to airports to millions of private businesses offline as they struggle to work from DOS-era command prompt lines to delete the killer code.<\/p>\n

This will take time to fix\u2014an uncomfortable, powerless position for CEOs and directors. But even here, amid the mess, there is opportunity. What should you be doing to put this crisis to use? You should be watching and evaluating and learning how your team and your technology is responding in real time. Don\u2019t let this crisis go to waste. Focus on a few key things, perhaps, and make a list of how well you\u2019re doing on a bunch of key points. Write them down, so you don\u2019t forget. Here\u2019s a non-exhaustive list to start with:<\/p>\n

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