At Def Con 32, the president of Crowdstrike accepted the “Most Epic Fail”award from the Pwnies ceremony during his stage appearance.
The Pwnies is an exclusive award ceremony that recognizes both successes and failures in the field of cybersecurity. Past submissions have included categories such as “Most Impactful Desktop Vulnerability”and “Worst Response from a Vendor”.
Despite the ongoing impact of the Crowdstrike outage, the company’s president, Mike Sentonas, humbly stepped onto the stage to offer his apologies.
CrowdStrike accepting the @PwnieAwards for “most epic fail” at @defcon. Class act. pic.twitter.com/e7IgYosHAE
— Dominic White 👾 (@singe) August 10, 2024
The awards were filled with the usual humor. The Pwnies could be compared to The Golden Raspberry Awards, which satirize the Oscars in the movie industry.
Prior to Sentonas receiving the award, the host presented a significantly bigger trophy. Normally, recipients are bestowed with a golden My Little Pony figurine.
In his short acceptance speech, Sentonas expressed that he did not view the award as something to be proud of. However, he did surprise his team by attending the hacker convention to accept it.
“He acknowledged that they had made a significant mistake and stressed the importance of taking responsibility for it. He also emphasized the importance of owning up to successes and failures alike.”
The failure of Crowdstrike has prompted increased scrutiny on technology security, affecting not only workplaces, but also airports and hospitals.
The solution provided by Crowdstrike for the bug required a manual fix that had to be performed manually.
Despite many places recovering, Crowdstrike continues to be targeted by businesses that were impacted.
Delta Airlines is reportedly facing a $500 million loss and is currently in the midst of a class-action lawsuit filed by those impacted by the outage.
Sentonas stated that he intends to bring the trophy back as a symbol of motivation for the team. He explained, “I feel it is important to take the trophy with me as I return to headquarters. Every Crowdstriker who sees it will be reminded of our goal to protect people and our determination to learn from our mistakes.”He concluded by emphasizing the significance of the trophy, saying, “It serves as a reminder that we are not perfect, but we are constantly striving to improve and do better.”
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