July 19, 2024 – The CrowdStrike Incident

4 minute read

July 2024

by Julia Winer

Introducing Threat and Vulnerability Response for quick and efficient third-party risk management of emerging threats 

I woke up last Friday morning completely unaware of the latest global IT disruption. It wasn’t until I learned that my colleagues were stranded in airports worldwide due to canceled flights that I realized the severity of the incident. I felt lucky that I flew home a day earlier, yet I was alarmed by the disruption this incident caused.  

Early Friday morning, a software update from CrowdStrike caused a massive IT outage worldwide. The issue impacted Microsoft Windows machines running Falcon sensor for Windows version 7.11. Banks, healthcare providers, trains, and airlines were all affected. Many were stuck at airports, unable to get to their final destinations. Medical procedures were delayed or canceled. It was a mess. 

CrowdStrike acted quickly, issued a statement from its founder and CEO, and included remediation steps for those affected. 

But as is always the case with these incidents, complete remediation across your extended third-party ecosystem represents an ongoing challenge. How do you quickly assess all your third parties (and their third parties) to ensure your organization isn’t at risk? 

As it happens, ProcessUnity has a solution. And we’re already seeing how our customers use our platform to identify and assess the potential impact of this CrowdStrike incident. 

Threat and Vulnerability Response 

We’re getting ready to publicly launch our latest offering, Threat and Vulnerability Response. This solution was built specifically for managing and responding to an incident like July 19th’s CrowdStrike update. The solution is available today, and a public announcement is coming soon. But given the recent news, we thought we should introduce you to this new and exciting offering from ProcessUnity. 

On a normal day, most third-party teams are resource-constrained and don’t have the bandwidth to assess every third and fourth party in their portfolio. When an incident like this occurs, normal TPRM work gets put on hold. When responding to an emerging threat or vulnerability, it’s not feasible to quickly and accurately vet the entire portfolio. Time is of the essence. Unfortunately, most third-party risk teams lack the time, tools, and data to go fast. Their emergency assessment activities end up taking weeks or even months.  

 

What if you could get answers in a couple of days? 

Going fast requires your team to focus—to reduce the number of emergency assessments. To do that, you need an easy way to determine which of your third parties are most likely using the affected software. That’s where ProcessUnity comes in. 

The ProcessUnity Global Risk Exchange includes more than 350,000 vendor risk profiles. It’s the world’s largest and most complete risk exchange and includes the industry’s most comprehensive threat intelligence data. The exchange includes relevant and accurate details, including what software platforms third parties use to run their businesses.  

ProcessUnity’s Threat and Vulnerability Response combines data from our Global Risk Exchange with feeds from the National Vulnerability Database and CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities database to deliver a prioritized list of third and fourth parties most susceptible to the threat. So, instead of trying to assess every third and fourth party in your ecosystem, you get an optimized list to focus on. 

crowdstrike

Then, we initiate a threat response workflow complete with relevant details about the threat. The workflow sends out targeted assessments to the susceptible list of third and fourth parties. As they respond, the platform automatically scores their answers based on preferred responses.  Anything that shows up red on the screen requires your attention. 

Finally, with the push of a button, we provide a detailed report highlighting your third-party team’s effectiveness and how you managed your response. It’s a great way to keep your leadership in the know. And it’s a great way for you to showcase your team’s abilities. 

Threat and Vulnerability Response is available for purchase today. As we prepare for our public announcement, we are reminded of the challenges an emerging threat like this one from CrowdStrike can present to our customers and prospects. When timely responses are required, you can’t spray and pray. You don’t have the bandwidth or the time to assess and analyze all of your third parties. This incident reminds us of that. 

So, stay tuned over the next few weeks as we finalize our public announcement for Threat and Vulnerability Response. It’s a very robust solution for managing your response to an emerging threat. Contact us here to learn more or to schedule a demonstration. 

Contact Us and learn more.

Related Articles

About Us

ProcessUnity is a leading provider of cloud-based applications for risk and compliance management. The company’s software as a service (SaaS) platform gives organizations the control to assess, measure, and mitigate risk and to ensure the optimal performance of key business processes. ProcessUnity’s flagship solution, ProcessUnity Vendor Risk Management, protects companies and their brands by reducing risks from third-party vendors and suppliers. ProcessUnity helps customers effectively and efficiently assess and monitor both new and existing vendors – from initial due diligence and onboarding through termination. Headquartered outside of Boston, Massachusetts, ProcessUnity is used by the world’s leading financial service firms and commercial enterprises. For more information, visit www.processunity.com.