What happened “cloud” strike ?

The fiasco of CrowdStrike and Microsoft is well known and stems from their inability to remove a buggy file, even in safe mode for on and offline computers. As for the cloud platform (on-line), it is CrowdStrike’s job to reverse its mess. The worrying part is why it could not be removed in safe mode which would require further analysis at another time. https://x.com/Perpetualmaniac/status/1814376668095754753

Functionally, the major issue with the cloud is that users are not allowed to manage or control this security infrastructure as root at all. Hence, by using the cloud, one is essentially delegating the “security” part to both Microsoft and its many third parties, with whom we may not even have a relationship.

Now, what about claims? If you missed your flight to negotiate a million-dollar deal, can you make a claim? Yes, but Microsoft may have covered this by capping the payout at an amount equivalent to your subscription fees. What about claiming against CrowdStrike? CrowdStrike does not have any insurable contract with third-party users, nor did it have any direct contractual relationship with Microsoft’s users if they are bundled under Microsoft products. There are competitors out there who offer up to $1 million in claims for direct users, though this may not even be adequate. For example, one could be running AI Large Language Models when this happened. Medical infrastructure would also be most vulnerable, and this would not be covered under a cyber attack. For example, if someone was scheduled for a routine operation and was delayed leading to death, or if one is doing remote surgery and suddenly encounters a blue screen of death, lives cannot be equated to “subscription” fees.

This hopefully will be an eye-opener for medical infrastructure providers to consider decentralizing their SaaS applications or using a more robust OS. CrowdStrike sold itself as the know-all and be-all for cybersecurity by focusing on cloud platforms. No doubt their claims were attractive to cost conscious CFO. CrowdStrike claimed it could make on-premise security issues history by centralizing on cloud platforms through automation (which the botched patch was trying to do). The reason is that most of CrowdStrike’s clients are so dependent on it that they don’t have the stomach to go back to on-premise (or even hybrid) solutions or alternative OS due to labor cost factors. The cloud platform is so attractive in terms of cost that once you are in, it is hard to leave – much like Hotel California. Most are now skilled in cloud and not much on-site manning the odd request like I can’t find my mail, which is the second problem. Hence, even if one has the foresight, it may be a Herculean task to convince the CFO until now ? As a lawyer, I would suggest to go through all the terms with your cloud provider and have them list the third parties fiddling their platform to have some accountability to you directly or have this noted in your favour (if there is some insurable interest).

Before writing this, I sold my CrowdStrike shares on Friday to avoid a conflict of interest, but I may buy again.