Microsoft CrowdStrike IT outage: cybersecurity firm exec to testify before Congress on IT outage

A senior executive at CrowdStrike will testify before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on September 24.

A senior executive at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike will testify before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on September 24 on the company's faulty software update that caused a global IT outage.

Adam Meyers, senior vice president for counter adversary operations at CrowdStrike, will testify before the House Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection subcommittee, the panel said Friday.

"Considering the significant impact CrowdStrike’s faulty software update had on Americans and critical sectors of the economy -- from aviation to medical services -- we must restore confidence in the IT that underpins the services Americans depend on daily,” said Representative Mark Green, who chairs the Homeland Security committee.

The committee had sent a letter in July to CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz asking him to testify on last week's global tech outage. CrowdStrike did not immediately comment Friday.

The July 19 incident led to worldwide flight cancellations and impacted industries around the globe including banks, health care, media companies and hotels chains. The outage disrupted internet services, affecting 8.5 million Microsoft Windows devices.

Delta Air Lines has vowed to take legal action after it said the outage forced it to cancel 7,000 flights impacting 1.3 million passengers over five days and cost it $500 million. CrowdStrike has rejected Delta's contention it should be blamed for massive flight disruptions.

Earlier this week, CrowdStrike cut its revenue and profit forecasts in the aftermath of the faulty software update, and said the environment would remain challenging for about a year. CrowdStrike disclosed this week it has received inquiries from governmental authorities about the incident.