The co-founder and CEO of cybersecurity firm CloudStrike will testify before the House Homeland Security Committee over last week's global Windows outage The impact of the global crash, which is still ongoing, was caused by a flaw in a CrowdStrike software update that was pushed to Windows systems around the world

The problem caused Windows machines to crash with infinite boot loops and blue screens-of-death, and its effects spread to airlines, banks, media companies, and hospitals According to Microsoft, an estimated 85 million machines were affected, and the organization is still counting the cost of the resulting damage

George Kurtz, who founded CrowdStrike in 2012 with Dmitri Alperovitch, appeared on NBC news during the outage and issued an apology As reported by the Washington Post, he has been asked to testify about the July 19 incident and explain what went wrong and why [Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee Chairman Andrew Garbarino, in a letter to Kurtz dated July 22, wrote, “Because the American people will undoubtedly feel the lasting and real consequences of this incident, it is critical that you explain how it happened they have a right to know more about how it happened and what mitigation measures Crowdstrike is taking” [In the United States alone, more than 3,000 commercial flights have been canceled and over 11,800 flights delayed In addition, the incident has caused cancelled surgeries, disrupted 911 emergency call centers, and many other impacts that could seriously affect Americans”

The letter asks Kurtz to hold a subcommittee hearing on Wednesday as CrowdStrike continues to support the cleanup operation; CrowdStrike spokesman Kevin Benacci said in a statement that the company is “in active contact with the relevant congressional committees” He stated

Meanwhile, a Microsoft fix released over the weekend promises to speed the recovery of machines burned by CrowdStrike

Microsoft's recovery tool uses a lightweight version of Windows called the Windows preinstall environment to create a bootable USB drive that automatically identifies and removes CrowdStrike updates This means that IT administrators do not have to put the machine into safe mode or reboot endlessly in the hopes of automatically receiving the necessary updates

Still, given the sheer number of machines affected (and, in some cases, the limited IT resources available), it will be some time before the CrowdStrike problem is fully reflected in the rear view mirror

According to a Wall Street Journal report, “A Microsoft spokesman said the company cannot legally blockade its operating system in the same way Apple did because it has reached an agreement with the European Commission, which has been sued ”In 2009, Microsoft told security software manufacturers to give them the same level of access to Windows that Microsoft gets”

In 2020, Apple notified developers that its macOS operating system would not give them kernel-level access This would prevent a blue screen-of-death scenario from occurring