The recent cybersecurity incident involving CrowdStrike, a US-based cybersecurity technology company, has prompted the Association for Computing Machinery’s US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) to release a statement calling for improved international cooperation and coordination. The incident, which occurred on July 18, 2024, resulted in a global outage affecting an estimated 8.5 million computers across various critical infrastructure sectors.
According to Jody Westby, CEO, Global Cyber Risk LLC, and a principal author of the USTPC Statement, the CrowdStrike incident exposed weaknesses in both global technical infrastructure and legal and policy infrastructure. Despite the deployment of the latest technologies to protect systems, a major outage still occurred, highlighting the fragility of the global technical infrastructure. Additionally, the existing legal and policy infrastructure proved to be insufficient in responding to such attacks, emphasizing the need for improvements in both areas.
The USTPC Statement emphasizes the need for improved international cooperation and coordination in addressing cybersecurity incidents of this scale. The statement notes that the global nature of the outage resulted in deficient information sharing among countries and companies, leaving each entity to fend for itself. This lack of cooperation underscores the necessity for a more unified and collaborative approach to cybersecurity on a global scale.
Carl Landwehr, visiting professor at the University of Michigan and a principal author of the ACM Statement, highlights the unprecedented scale of the CrowdStrike incident and the alarming reach into critical infrastructures. He stresses the importance of learning from the incident to prevent future disasters. The USTPC has outlined eight key questions that should form the basis of a public investigation into the incident, including issues related to system architecture, software testing, best practices for automatic updates, and system recovery strategies.
The USTPC members have urged that a public investigation of the CrowdStrike incident be undertaken by the US government’s Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB). This investigation is seen as a crucial step in understanding how the incident occurred and implementing measures to prevent similar incidents in the future. By conducting a thorough investigation and addressing the shortcomings exposed by the incident, stakeholders can work towards enhancing cybersecurity practices and safeguarding critical infrastructures.
The CrowdStrike incident serves as a wake-up call for improved international cooperation, robust cybersecurity policies, and proactive measures to prevent mass cybersecurity incidents. By addressing the vulnerabilities in technical, legal, and policy infrastructures, stakeholders can better prepare for and respond to future cybersecurity challenges. Through collaborative efforts and information sharing on a global scale, the cybersecurity community can build a more resilient and secure digital ecosystem for the future.
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