CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz was called to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee over the major outage affecting Windows PCs spurred by a faulty update that brought flights, hospital procedures, and broadcasters to a halt on Friday, The Washington Post reported.
“Recognizing that Americans will undoubtedly feel the lasting, real-world consequences of this incident, they deserve to know in detail how this incident happened and the mitigation steps CrowdStrike is taking,” Homeland Security Chair Mark Green (R-TN) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) wrote in a letter later shared with The Verge. They asked that CrowdStrike schedule a hearing with the subcommittee by end of day Wednesday.
Kurtz assured the public on Friday in a social media post that the massive outage was “not a security or cyber incident.” Instead, he pointed to “an issue with a Falcon content update for Windows Hosts,” referring to the company’s security software.
CrowdStrike spokesperson Kevin Benacci said in a statement the company “is actively in contact with relevant Congressional Committees. Briefings and other engagement timelines may be disclosed at Members’ discretion.”
