Image source, Getty Images
- author, Natalie Sherman and Liv McMahon
- Role, BBC News
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Shares of cybersecurity company CrowdStrike fell more than 13% as the company grapples with the fallout caused by a global IT outage.
Chief security officer Sean Henry said the incident was a “deadly blow” to the company, which was previously one of the most trusted names in the industry.
“We have failed the very people we were committed to protecting, and to say we are devastated is an understatement,” he said.
Many businesses are still recovering from the effects of last week’s botched “content update” that left 8.5 million Microsoft Windows computers worldwide down.
The issue required a manual reboot in some cases.
Mr. Henry, a former executive assistant to the FBI, said the weekend was “the most challenging 48 hours” he has been at the company in 12 years.
He promised to use the incident as an opportunity to “emerge better and stronger than ever.”
“The trust we had built in Drip over the years was lost in a matter of hours, and that was a huge blow,” he said. In a post on LinkedIn on monday.
“But that’s nothing compared to the pain we’ve caused our customers and partners.”
That was much more than any other airline.
Delta said Monday that more than half of its IT systems run on Windows and need manual fixes, adding that the software it uses to direct employees on flights requires the most time and manual support to fix.
“We have had everyone at the company working around the clock to get this process where it needs to be,” Delta President Ed Bastian said in a video message to employees Monday.
The day before, he apologized to customers, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also warned that the government had received complaints about “ongoing disruptions and unacceptable customer service” at the company.
Other entities, such as the UK’s National Health Service, said their systems were operating more normally.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Cabinet Office Minister Ellie Reeves said the majority of sectors affected by CrowdStrike had largely recovered, including aviation, rail and maritime systems.
But she warned that some “minor disruption” could continue, including in the NHS.
She added that the government will work with the National Cyber Security Centre and other partners to “review lessons learned”.
The minister told parliament that the incident showed how dependent the modern world is on “complex, interconnected information technology systems and how important it is to be prepared for such events.”
Founded in 2011, CrowdStrike has approximately 29,000 customers worldwide, including government agencies in the US and UK and some of the world’s largest companies.
The company’s shares had risen about 40% this year before the accident.
But the hit to CrowdStrike’s stock on Monday came after an 11% drop on Friday, reflecting the severity of the incident. The company’s stock ended trading at just under $264, down more than 13%.
Some investors are betting that the company’s rivals will benefit from its current struggles, which have exposed the world’s dependence on one big player and drawn the attention of antitrust regulators.
For example, Sentinel One shares rose more than 8% on Monday.
Analysts said that despite the damage to CrowdStrike shares now, they did not expect long-term damage to the company.
“The reality is that despite the CrowdStrike fiasco last week, there are few alternatives to CrowdStrike and the costs of switching are high,” said Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, a firm known for its technology investments. Written on social media.
“In other words, when the company reports its fiscal quarter results in late August, I expect the comments to indicate uncertainty about the company’s ability to retain customers in the near term. However, I expect there to be few customer defections in the long term.”
It will be important for CrowdStrike to resolve its issues this week, said Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.
“It will take some time for this to settle down, but that doesn’t change our long-term positive view of CrowdStrike or the cybersecurity sector,” he wrote in a note on Monday.
Report contributed by Chris Vallance
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