Crowdstrike organized a 'hacker' event as if nothing happened

Despite the recent global IT meltdown, CrowdStrike organized an event for hackers at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas. While the name “CrowdStrike” has been associated with a faulty software update that affected millions of computers, the company chose to thank attendees by handing out ‘hacker’ figurines.

CrowdStrike’s strategy after the crash: Events and action figures

CrowdStrike participated in the Black Hat conference and came face-to-face with customers and cybersecurity experts in the aftermath of the July 19 IT meltdown that affected 8.5 million computers. Despite the major meltdown, the company took part in the event, promoting its products and trying to draw attention with various promotions to make people forget what happened.

CrowdStrike’s booth was packed from the first day of the conference, with attendees not only asking questions about the company, but also forming long lines to get T-shirts and action figures. CrowdStrike’s strategy of reaching out to attendees with figures representing well-known cybercrime groups such as Scattered Spider and Aquatic Panda was both entertaining and surprising. The company said, “Adversaries aren’t stopping. Neither are we.” (Adversaries aren’t stopping. Neither are we.), emphasizing its determination in the post-crisis period.

CrowdStrike’s presence at this event coincided with the release of a root cause analysis report on the crash. The company accepted responsibility for the faulty update and stated that it has taken measures to prevent a similar incident from happening again. These statements were welcomed by some in the cybersecurity community, with some professionals saying they were ready to give CrowdStrike a second chance.