Crowdstrike has been in the news over the past month due to the global IT outage that disrupted work worldwide and caused massive chaos. Many industries, especially the aviation industry, suffered huge losses due to the Windows crash and have taken legal action against the company for being responsible for the significant financial costs. While the cybersecurity company has explained in detail the reason behind the problem and the steps taken to fix it, DefCon and Crowdstrike don’t seem to have taken it so seriously at a recent ceremony.
Crowdstrike recently received the “Most Epic Fail” award at the annual Def Con ceremony
Crowdstrike has faced tremendous pressure worldwide during the IT outage, the effects of which are still being felt in the form of legal action from the companies that suffered from the Windows crash. Although it was a failed security update, the company had to explain in detail how the problem arose in the first place and how it was able to reach the masses. Strict measures are also being taken to ensure that such chaos does not happen again. Recently, this issue was addressed in a humorous way at an awards ceremony.
The Pwine Awards are presented every year at Def Con to recognize the work of security researchers and their contribution to the community. While they usually reward epic successes, they also highlight epic failures by security vendors. This year, there was also an award for “worst vendor response.”
As The Verge reported, Crowdstrike was awarded the “Most Epic Fail” award at the Def Con hacker conference in Las Vegas for causing a global IT outage due to a faulty update. The company’s president, Michael Sentonas, gratefully accepted the award as a way to acknowledge the mistakes made and improve them. At the awards ceremony, he stressed the importance of admitting mistakes first, saying:
It is extremely important to own up when you do something terribly wrong, which is what we did in this case.
However, Sentonas mentioned that the award is not the category they want to be known for, as it is not something to be proud of. However, he would display it at headquarters so that employees can see it when they come to work and learn from it. Crowdstrike takes things a little easier and owns up to its mistakes, taking a more positive and transparent approach that other companies can learn from.
