Avoiding Tech Meltdowns: What Every Business Can Learn From CrowdStrike’s Global Glitch

On July 19, 2024 millions of people around the world woke up to a “blue screen of death” – the infamous sign that a Microsoft computer is experiencing technical difficulties. If you or your business were personally impacted, we know how frustrating and disruptive it was and we hope things have returned to normal by now. 

Unlike other recent and well-known cyber “events,” CrowdStrike and its customers’ struggle wasn’t caused by a malicious actor but instead by some lines of glitchy code that made their way into an estimated 8.5 million computers by way of an automatic software update. 

At AgentSync, we’re big proponents of cybersecurity (and we’ve got the credentials to prove our commitment to it), however, traditional forms of cybersecurity aren’t the only precautions businesses should take to protect their valuable IT infrastructure. In this article, we’ll cover four things every company can learn from the CrowdStrike incident that can help minimize and prevent catastrophic IT events.

1. Backups are still important, even in today’s world of cloud computing

It’s easy to get comfortable when you assume all your data is safely “in the cloud” where you can access it anytime, anywhere. On the surface, this may be true. However, the cloud isn’t literally a cloud; cloud computing relies on actual servers worldwide to store and retrieve data. 

While it’s true that cloud-based software is typically less susceptible to one major point of failure than those hosted entirely by on-premises servers, all cloud systems aren’t created equal. It’s important to ask your providers about their level of redundancy and how frequently they perform backups. 

2. Diversifying your tech stack can protect you from widespread outages 

One of the reasons the CrowdStrike incident was so catastrophic to entire industries around the world (think: healthcare, airlines, banking) is because CrowdStrike is one of the most commonly used cybersecurity providers globally. This meant that when an update rolled out to all of their customers, those with automatic updates enabled were immediately and all at once hit by the bug. There wasn’t any opportunity for parts of a business, or businesses within an industry, to see what was happening and prevent the update from rolling out across the board. 

This might also be a cautionary tale for auto-updates, although the benefits of enabling them normally outweigh the risks. But more than anything, it’s a lesson on the dangers of every part of a business across every part of an industry relying solely on the same piece of technology. Certainly, there’s a balance you need to strike: Having too diversified of a tech stack opens your entire system up to risks coming from more directions, while too monolithic a tech stack can result in exactly what we saw with Crowdstrike. 

The lesson businesses should take away from the incident is that it’s important to diversify smartly, with integrations that allow different pieces of your tech environment to speak to one another without reliance on a single point of failure (more on that later).       

3. You’ll see your tech partner’s true colors in moments of crisis 

Just like any relationship, a stressful event can bring out the best, or worst, in each participant. This is true both for businesses and individual people. And, unfortunately, the CrowdStrike incident revealed some not-too-flattering characteristics for CrowdStrike itself and some of its customers.

One of the most public examples is Delta Airlines, whose business impact coming out of the July 19 incident was more far-reaching than others. While other airlines returned to normal operations within a few days, Delta Airlines still struggled with canceled flights and stranded passengers. Delta blames this entirely on CrowdStrike and Microsoft and the effects of their glitchy software update, while Microsoft maintains the problem could be due to Delta Airlines’ own “outdated IT infrastructure.”

Regardless of who’s responsible, Delta Airlines claims to have lost $500 million in business, which it’s trying to recoup from CrowdStrike and Microsoft. Meanwhile, Delta’s passengers have filed a class action lawsuit claiming that the airlines not only canceled their flights but refused to provide them with meals, lodging, and refunds. 

It all seems like a big game of “pass the buck” and only time will tell which company will be on the hook for damages to its own customers and its customers’ customers. 

4. Don’t ignore connections that make a single point of failure a system-wide risk 

As we alluded to above, diversifying your tech stack can be a protective measure against the risk of complete system-wide failure. Still, it’s important that your diverse systems communicate with one another. We’re certainly not advocating for a siloed approach to technology at your organization. Quite the opposite, as we believe integrations, APIs, and transparent access to a single source of truth are at the core of any technology solution worth its salt. On the other hand, you have to make sure that all that interconnectivity doesn’t create a situation where one glitch can take down your entire technological ecosystem. 

Case in point: For many CrowdStrike customers, their entire company relied on computers running the Microsoft operating system. Since CrowdStrike provides cybersecurity protection, it makes sense that its software would be running on every machine. Unfortunately, when a glitch causes a Microsoft machine to enter “blue screen of death” territory, you lose access to all functions, regardless of whether they relied on Microsoft or CrowdStrike at all. Companies with Apple or Linux ecosystems, or a mix of those and Microsoft products, were less severely impacted by the outage, if at all. 

This is a good reminder to consider what technology is at the core of your IT infrastructure and whether a failure in one system could take down others. 

Work with a partner who cares about your technological health 

You’re in the insurance business, not IT. That’s why it’s even more important to partner with solutions that think about issues you might not have top of mind in your day-to-day operations. From data security to full system integrations, AgentSync’s team of experts have you covered on the technical side just as much as we do on the ins-and-outs of insurance industry regulations.  
Contact us today to see how AgentSync can transform your insurance organization’s producer onboarding, license management, appointment process, and entire experience with modern insurance infrastructure.