Opportunity in the Midst of Disaster: The CrowdStrike Outage and the Future of Cybersecurity
The recent global outage caused by a faulty software update from CrowdStrike has drawn attention to the vulnerability of our technological infrastructure. This incident has brought airlines, hospitals, banks, and other critical systems to a grinding halt, emphasizing the urgent need for new technologies to prevent such widespread disruptions in the future. Venture capitalists see this as an opportunity for startups to innovate and address this widespread issue.
While some may view this outage as a cybersecurity event, CRV General Partner Reid Christian argues that the real problem lies in the deployment of software that wasn’t properly tested or debugged. To address this issue, CRV is investing in Fleet, a cybersecurity and IT management startup that monitors vendor instances on your endpoint. However, it’s uncertain how well additional mobile device management-type software would have worked in this specific case since the problem originated from a faulty Windows kernel-level driver.
Despite this, Christian emphasizes the importance of having additional vendors to monitor and support software deployments. He believes that there should be people “watching the watchers” in the cyber world to ensure that the systems are secure. Fleet’s co-founder and CTO, Zach Wasserman, explains that their security software operates outside the kernel to maintain system stability.
The severity of this outage may be attributed to CrowdStrike’s unique access to kernels, which are the core of operating systems. Guru Chahal from Lightspeed Venture Partners suggests that cybersecurity applications like Wiz, which operate outside the kernel, may become more popular after this disaster. Chahal argues that avoiding issues like this is possible by using non-invasive approaches. Companies like Wiz and Oligo Security take alternative approaches such as sandboxing and runtime security to mitigate these risks.
Oligo Security, for example, uses sandboxing to observe open-source software without direct access to the kernel. While it couldn’t have prevented this specific Windows problem, the concept of sandboxed systems is something that the Windows security industry should consider pursuing. On the other hand, Wiz, which recently caught attention due to Google’s $23 billion acquisition deal, acknowledges that this incident has increased the pressure on the entire security ecosystem. They anticipate greater scrutiny around products and deployment in light of this event.
Investors like Logan Allin from Fin Capital see a growing need for cloud observability companies, particularly in sectors like finance and healthcare. As companies integrate more AI solutions and rely on external APIs, they become more susceptible to buggy software updates like the one experienced during the CrowdStrike outage. Companies like Middleware ensure that API integrations between different systems within an architecture remain intact, reducing the risk of disruptions.
While the recent outage was jarring, venture capitalists like Allin and Chahal predict that this is just the beginning of a crumbling infrastructure layer. They believe that startups will emerge to address these issues by providing runtime security without the need for direct access to the kernel. This incident underscores the pressing need for updated technology in older sectors like finance and healthcare.
In conclusion, the CrowdStrike outage serves as a wake-up call for the world’s reliance on technological infrastructure. It highlights the importance of investing in innovative solutions to prevent future disasters and protect critical systems. The cybersecurity industry will face greater scrutiny, and startups that offer non-invasive approaches to security will likely gain traction. Ultimately, this incident emphasizes the need for updated technology and a more secure infrastructure layer to ensure smooth operations in various sectors.