Breadcrumb Cybersecurity

On Friday we failed you, and for that I'm deeply sorry. I’ve been in my professional life for almost 40 years, and my North Star has always been to “protect good people from bad things.” For twenty four years in the FBI, I was involved in hundreds of investigations and crises…terrorist incidents, mass shootings, computer intrusions, and kidnappings. Serving the citizens, safeguarding national security, and keeping people secure is something that’s defined my professional career.   When I transitioned to CrowdStrike after retiring in 2012 it was an opportunity to continue the mission. Nationstate adversaries, organized crime groups, and hacktivists were ramping up their attacks on infrastructure, posing grave risk to the commercial and private sector.     We had a vision "to protect good people from bad things", and we've been very successful for more than a decade. We’ve done attribution on attackers hiding in the shadows; we’ve disrupted ransomware attacks and high-risk intrusions at thousands of companies; and we’ve identified and blocked nation state adversaries seeking to exfiltrate valuable intellectual property globally.   We built a team and a culture which embodies the spirit of “one team, one fight.”  We created a stellar reputation over a dozen years, solving people’s problems and protecting them from harm. I am as proud of my work at CrowdStrike as I was when I was at the FBI, because we’ve had an impact and we’ve made a difference.   On Friday, though, we failed. The past two days have been the most challenging 48 hours for me over 12+ years. The confidence we built in drips over the years was lost in buckets within hours, and it was a gut punch.  But this pales in comparison to the pain we've caused our customers and our partners. We let down the very people we committed to protect, and to say we’re devastated is a huge understatement.     I, and the entire company, take that personally. Thousands of our team members have been working 24/7 to get our customer systems fully restored. The days have been long and the nights have been short, and that will continue for the immediate future. But that is part of the promise we made to all of you when you put your trust and protection in our hands. I know I speak for the women and men of CrowdStrike when I say thank you to every customer and partner who has also been working around the clock. You are the real heroes in all of this. We are committed to re-earning your trust by delivering the protection you need to disrupt the adversaries targeting you. Despite this setback, the mission endures. John Adams once said, “Every problem is an opportunity in disguise." Our promise to all of you is that CrowdStrike will use this opportunity to emerge better and stronger than ever, because it’s no less than every customer and partner expects and deserves.  We commit to that. See details on our customer remediation efforts here: https://lnkd.in/e42tMH_x