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CrowdStrike’s CEO called to testify before US House committee

  • A CrowdStrike spokesperson said on Monday evening that the company was in discussion with congressional committees

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Crowdstrike signage on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, July 22, 2024. Photo: Bloomberg
Bloomberg

A US House committee called on the chief executive officer of CrowdStrike to testify on a defective software update that caused widespread global outages.

The House Committee on Homeland Security requested the appearance of CEO George Kurtz, and it asked CrowdStrike to promptly schedule a date.

“In less than one day, we have seen major impacts to key functions of the global economy, including aviation, healthcare, banking, media and emergency services,” committee chair Mark Green, a Tennessee Republican, and Representative Andrew Garbarino, a New York Republican and chairman of the panel’s Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, wrote in a letter to Kurtz on Monday.

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“Recognising 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,” they wrote.

A blue Windows error message caused by the CrowdStrike software update is displayed on a screen in a bus shelter on July 22, 2024 in Washington, DC. Photo: Getty Images via AFP
A blue Windows error message caused by the CrowdStrike software update is displayed on a screen in a bus shelter on July 22, 2024 in Washington, DC. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

A CrowdStrike spokesperson said on Monday evening that the company was in discussion with congressional committees, which have the power to compel testimony by issuing subpoenas but usually first ask potential witnesses to appear voluntarily.

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