CrowdStrike gained the 2024 Pwnie Award for Greatest Epic Failure, and President Michael Sentonas personally delivered his acceptance speech. Generally, the most effective factor to do is to suck it up, admit your mistake, and settle for the L.
This 12 months’s Pwnie Awards ceremony was held on Saturday on the DEF CON hacker convention in Las Vegas. The Pwnie Awards, now of their seventeenth 12 months, acknowledge probably the most excellent achievements in addition to probably the most egregious failures in expertise safety over the previous 12 months.
CrowdStrike 3 days after hiatus: How is all the pieces now?
So it is a no-brainer that CrowdStrike wins this 12 months. Greater than 8.5 million Home windows computer systems failed in July after the cybersecurity firm rolled out a software program replace, bringing firms and providers world wide to a sudden halt. Affected companies embody banks, airways, posties, supermarkets and telecommunications firms.
The CrowdStrike outage was a large international occasion and has now been awarded an enormous Pwnie Award trophy. The 2-tiered trophy CrowdStrike acquired dwarfed the smaller pony-shaped trophies in different classes, befitting the magnitude of the error it made.
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“That is positively not an award to be pleased with,” Centonas mentioned in his acceptance speech. When he walked on stage, the viewers burst into laughter and applause. “I believe the crew was shocked after I straight up mentioned I used to be going to return and get it. We made a severe mistake and we have mentioned it many occasions. Once you get one thing achieved, it is crucial to have it, It is vital to have it whenever you do one thing terribly incorrect, like we did on this instance.
After accepting the massive gold trophy, Sentonas mentioned he deliberate to show it at CrowdStrike headquarters in Austin, Texas. He hopes it will alert CrowdStrike staff to stop the sort of mistake from taking place sooner or later.
In style tales that may be blended and matched
“The explanation I would like the trophy is as a result of I need to return to headquarters,” Sentosa continued. “I will carry the trophy, and it is going to be in probably the most seen place as a result of I would like each CrowdStriker who involves work to see it. As a result of our objective is to guard folks, and we acquired it incorrect, and I would like everybody to see it. Understanding that this stuff do not occur, that is what this neighborhood is about, so from that perspective, I say thanks.
Sentonas’ acceptance of CrowdStrike’s Pwnie Award in particular person was properly acquired, with social media customers praising him for accepting the accountability with humility, grace and good humor.
CrowdStrike is the one contender for the 2024 Pwnie Award for Most Epic Fail
Though CrowdStrike’s “Most Epic Fail” trophy was solely awarded this weekend, the winner was introduced on the finish of July together with the Pwnie Award nominations. Simply days in the past, the notorious international blackout crippled quite a few firms and providers world wide.
Pwnie Awards mentioned in a put up to X on the time that they have been awarding the award early as a result of “extenuating circumstances.” The above is probably going as a result of CrowdStrike’s failure was so epic that nobody may match it until they intentionally tried. Even so, it is nonetheless a frightening job.
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Whereas all different classes of the 2024 Pwnie Awards have three finalists, CrowdStrike shouldn’t be competing for the Epic Fail Award. As an alternative, the nominee particulars for the class merely learn: “Lol. Even Lmao.”
“This award is given to defenders who dare to assume, ‘What may have gone incorrect?'” reads the Pwnie Award’s description of its “Most Epic Failure Award.” “The award will acknowledge a person or company entity’s epic failure – a failure that introduced the whole safety business to its knees with it. It might be a single incident, advertising and marketing piece or funding – ​​or it might be a whale-sized smoldering Hint failed.
Final 12 months’s “most epic fail” award went to the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) after a hacker found their no-fly record on an unsecured server. Nonetheless, a minimum of the TSA can say that its mistake didn’t paralyze international IT techniques.
