New York: CrowdStrike is facing mounting criticism from competitors following a global IT outage in July, triggered by a faulty software update. Michael Sentonas, CrowdStrike’s president, has accused rivals of exploiting the incident to “scare” customers and boost their own market share.
“Our industry is built on trust,” Sentonas told the Financial Times. He criticized competitors for using the outage to promote their products, arguing that such actions undermine their credibility as “people know quickly fact from, possibly, some shady commentary.”
Rival Reactions to the Microsoft Outage
Following the outage, which disrupted 8.5 million Windows-run computers, rivals like SentinelOne and Trellix have criticized CrowdStrike’s product design and testing processes. SentinelOne CEO Tomer Weingarten attributed the disruption to “bad design decisions” and “risky architecture”, while Trellix CEO Bryan Palma advocated for a “more conservative approach.”
Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks, noted in a recent earnings call that the outage has led some businesses to explore other options, presenting an opportunity for his company. “It’s exciting because customers are willing to give us consideration,” he said.
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Arora acknowledged that no vendor can guarantee their software will never cause a similar incident, emphasizing the inherent risks in the industry.
In response to the criticism, CrowdStrike has pledged to implement new checks and staggered updates to prevent future disruptions. Despite the backlash, CrowdStrike maintains that its kernel-level access is crucial for optimal protection against cyber threats. “The reason why we’re in the kernel is it gives us an opportunity to get visibility into everything happening to the system. It means that we can protect the security product. It means that we can operate very fast — and it’s a very common way of working across the industry,” Sentonas explained.
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This month, Sentonas accepted the Pwnie Award for Epic Fail at the 2024 Def Con security conference in Las Vegas.
