Revisiting the Lessons of the CrowdStrike Outage: Protect Your Supply Chain

By Unbound Digital Team | August 16, 2024

We’ve come to rely on the Internet for a significant number of services that impact our daily lives. Everything is running fine until one link in the chain falters, then major disruptions can happen. Costly disruptions.

The CrowdStrike outage of 2024 stands as one of the most notable events in recent memory, highlighting vulnerabilities in supply chain continuity that many organizations may have overlooked. As a result of the incident, millions of people couldn’t access vital services, such as travel and banking. The ultimate price tag to those businesses whose operations came to a halt will likely be in the billions.

As a managed IT service provider, we’ve made it our business to understand the implications of this outage and the steps our customers can take to protect their supply chains. Keep reading to learn the important steps you can take to protect your operations and business continuity.

The CrowdStrike Outage: An Overview

In July 2024, CrowdStrike, a leading cybersecurity firm, caused a massive outage that disrupted services for millions of clients worldwide. The incident, now considered one of the largest IT outages in history, had far-reaching consequences, affecting a wide array of industries that rely on CrowdStrike’s security solutions.

The outage was attributed to a faulty update to the company’s Falcon Sensor security software. Once the update was installed on a Windows system, the system crashed and couldn’t properly restart. Many industries were impacted, from airlines to retail stores.

Understanding the Impact on Supply Chains

The CrowdStrike outage underscored several critical vulnerabilities in supply chain security:

Dependence on Single Suppliers

A lot of organizations rely heavily on a single supplier for their software needs. While this can streamline operations and reduce costs, it also creates a single point of failure. The CrowdStrike incident showed how a disruption at one supplier could cascade down the supply chain, affecting numerous businesses.

Data Exposure Risks

The attack on CrowdStrike raised concerns about the security of data handled by third-party vendors. While this incident wasn’t related to a cyberattack, sensitive information shared with suppliers can be at risk if the supplier’s security measures are compromised. This can lead to potential data breaches.

Operational Downtime

The outage resulted in significant operational downtime for many organizations. This downtime can lead to financial losses, damaged reputations, and a loss of customer trust.

Lessons Learned: Strengthening Supply Chain Security

In light of the CrowdStrike outage, here are key lessons and best practices to enhance your supply chain continuity:

1. Diversify Your Suppliers

Why It’s Important:

Relying on a single supplier for critical services can create a single point of failure. Diversifying your suppliers mitigates this risk by ensuring that a disruption at one supplier does not cripple your operations.

Best Practices:

Identify and engage multiple suppliers for essential services.
Regularly assess the reliability and security practices of all suppliers.
Develop contingency plans to switch to alternative suppliers quickly if needed.

2. Conduct Thorough Supplier Assessments

Why It’s Important:

Understanding the security posture and update process of your suppliers is crucial to identifying potential vulnerabilities that could affect your business.

Best Practices:

Perform comprehensive security assessments of all suppliers before engagement.
Include security requirements in contracts and service level agreements (SLAs).
Regularly review and update supplier assessments to reflect evolving threats and changes in the supplier’s security posture.

3. Implement Managed Rollouts of Major Updates

Why It’s Important:

An exposed vulnerability during this widespread outage was that many companies rolled out updates to all systems at once (Including CrowdStrike). Updating all systems simultaneously can lead to widespread issues if an update is faulty. Managed rollouts help mitigate this risk by allowing for testing and gradual implementation.

Best Practices:

Test updates in a controlled environment before wide-scale deployment.
Roll out updates in phases, starting with non-critical systems.
Monitor the performance of updates during rollout to identify and address issues promptly.

4. Establish Continuous Monitoring and Incident Response

Why It’s Important

Continuous monitoring allows for the early detection of potential security incidents, enabling a swift response to mitigate the impact.

Best Practices:

Implement continuous monitoring of supplier activities and communications.
Develop and maintain an incident response plan that includes procedures for addressing supply chain-related incidents.
Regularly test and update your incident response plan to ensure its effectiveness.

5. Enhance Communication and Collaboration

Why It’s Important:

Effective communication and collaboration with suppliers can improve incident detection and response, reducing the impact of security incidents.

Best Practices:

Establish clear communication channels with suppliers for reporting and addressing security incidents.
Collaborate with suppliers to share threat intelligence and best practices.
Participate in industry forums and initiatives focused on supply chain security.

Improve Your Business Resilience Today

The massive CrowdStrike outage highlighted critical vulnerabilities in supply chain security that businesses cannot afford to ignore. Stay informed, stay vigilant, and let Unbound Digital help you build a robust supply chain strategy to safeguard your business against future threats.

Posted in Cyber Security, Security Practices