The Crowdstrike mess...a few thoughts

By now, you've either read about or been affected by the failed update security firm Crowdstrike pushed to their customers the other day.  Who could have predicted this?  Actually, anyone could have predicted it.

The world isn't filled with guarantees.  In fact, it's just the opposite.  Uncertainly is part of life.  We try and control things as best we can, to minimize negative outcomes, but sometimes bad things happen.  The fact is that there are just some things that no matter how much you try, you still get wrong.  It's OK; it happens to all of us.

So, your company spent a bazillion dollars on security products in the hope that you could prevent everything bad from happening.  The interesting thing with the Crowdstrike issue is that it WASN'T the bad guys who got everyone; it was a mistake by the good guys.  Which happens.  Clearly, Crowdstrike wasn't trying to hurt many companies and governments globally; it would be unfair to accuse Crowdstrike of any bad intentions.  

But, the thing is that despite all of your due diligence, preparation, and money spent, it still happened.  The issue here is that too many of you thought it couldn't happen to you.  It can, and did.

What can we learn from this?  Probably a few things.  The first is that bad stuff happens sometimes.  The second is that you need to be prepared in the event bad stuff DOES happen.  The third is that you shouldn't "put all of your eggs in one basket".

When a simple error can cause so much global difficulties, you really have to wonder if there was too much risk centered on one vendor's products.  In this case, there was.  You know what you need to do...don't rely on one vendor.  No one is untouchable.  Either from bad guys or from good guys making dumb mistakes.

Don't beat yourself up if you got caught in the Crowdstrike issue, but be smart about things going forward.

On a lighter note, I like the fake Southwest Airline's tweet about the issue:  "Well, well, well.  Look who needs ol' Southwest Airlines now because all of our systems run on a single Commodore 64 in a warehouse in Arlington.  Go to hell."  ​If you thought that was a real tweet, then you got fooled twice this week!