What states learned from the CrowdStrike outage

Jack Taylor via Getty Images

 

Connecting state and local government leaders

Three months since a faulty update caused outages and disruptions worldwide, state CIOs are looking back and assessing how they did.

If there is a silver lining to this summer’s CrowdStrike outage, it might be to show some states that their disaster recovery plans are up to snuff.

Several state CIOs recently reported that it took them no more than 24 hours to get their operations back up and running after a faulty July 19 update from the cybersecurity company caused major problems on computers running their software. Microsoft’s dreaded “Blue Screen of Death” popped up on screens worldwide, leading to canceled flights, impacting financial institutions, and disrupting border operations at several U.S.-Canada crossings, among other things.

For state and local governments, the incident saw outages or disruptions that affected 911 call centers, Department of Motor Vehicle offices, official websites, election and voter registration databases, transit agencies and more.

At a panel discussion during the National Association of State Chief Information Officers’ annual conference in New Orleans late last month, Oklahoma CIO Joe McIntosh said the state restored 819 servers within 24 hours of the outage and resolved 10,000 endpoints by the end of that week.

“Our response to that outage shows a lot about the maturity of our organization,” he said, “specifically when I think about our security teams, our networks, [and] the way that they came together and basically got emergency services back up and running almost immediately.”

Minnesota CIO Tarek Tomes also said that his state was in a “recovery posture, literally within 24 hours” after the outage. He wryly described it as a “massively significant tabletop exercise,” but said the planning and preparation for such eventualities had paid off.

It wasn’t smooth sailing for everyone. Some states had to quickly stand up temporary websites to continue providing crucial services, while simultaneously mitigating any damage to their networks.

It was particularly tricky in Iowa, which had gone live with a new governmental structure that also entailed several network changes right as the outage hit. As part of a push under Gov. Kim Reynolds, the state was in the midst of consolidating its cabinet agencies from 37 down to 16. Deputy CIO Michelle O’Hollearn had that on her plate when the CrowdStrike update went awry and “completely turned the apple cart upside down.”

For those states that didn’t turn things around in 24 hours, the CrowdStrike incident has become a learning moment. The cybersecurity company itself is even using the event as such.

“CrowdStrike proudly partners with 43 of the 50 U.S. states to help protect them from sophisticated nation-state, hacktivist and criminal threat actors,” a company spokesperson said in an email. “Our focus continues to be on using the lessons learned from this incident to better serve our customers and we are grateful for their support.”

Outside observers say the outage has made governments and businesses of all sizes think even more carefully about their resiliency and disaster recovery plans, especially as the threat of cyberattacks increases.

“That was an enlightening moment to the significant impact that could be there, and that was basically a human error event. That wasn't even a malicious actor out there trying to disrupt our industries,” Shawn Rodriguez, vice president for state and local government and education for software company World Wide Technology, said in an interview at NASCIO. “But it shone a light on how difficult things could be if we ever had that type of event occur at that scale, from malicious actors.”

Being better prepared, though, will cost money, warned Srini Subramanian, a principal at Deloitte & Touche LLP. He added that the Crowdstrike incident or others—whether they be cyberattacks or human error—could be the “singular motivation” to justify funding modernization of tech infrastructure to be more resilient.

“As a society, we have used the medium of the internet for our economy and to connect everything everywhere. Only later once a connection was possible, we started thinking about needing to secure certain information in it,” he said. “Can that be reversed as we start embracing generative AI, and maybe five years from now, when we have quantum technologies come in and completely revolutionize technology? And can we make sure that resilience is an integral part of how the design is done, so that we don't have to retrofit like we are doing now?”

Rodriguez said another silver lining is the awareness the incident raised of how fragile technology can be, and how important it is to prepare for such incidents. A recent NASCIO survey found that CIOs are already taking on an elevated role in state emergency operations in all manner of incidents.

“Every time we unfortunately have a little or a major thing like that happen,” he said, “I think it puts us closer and closer as an industry on how we're collaborating and working together to really holistically engage and execute in cybersecurity.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.