“Moving forward, this outage demonstrates that continuous preparation to fortify defenses is vital, especially before outages occur,” Christine Gadsby, CISO at Blackberry, opined. She continued, “Already understanding what areas are most vulnerable within a system prevents a panicked reaction when something looks amiss and makes it more difficult for hackers to wreak havoc. In a crisis, defense is the best offense; the value of confidence that comes with preparation cannot be underestimated.”

Let me close on a piece of positive news: As of 25 July, CrowdStrike tells us that 97% of the Windows Falcon Sensors are back online. Those directly affected, and now remediated, are reviewing the unexpected hit to the operating expenses, as well as the toll on workers, be they employees, contractors, or partners, who put in the long hours to fix machines BSOD’d by the rollout.

CISOs should also review what needs to be changed, included, or deleted from their emergency response and business continuity playbooks.