Senator Schmitt Sends Letter to Department of Defense Regarding Crippling IT Outages Causing System Disruption Across the Country

WASHINGTON – Senator Eric Schmitt sent a letter to Acting Chief Information Officer Leslie Beavers of the Department of Defense regarding widespread IT system outages affecting Microsoft Windows hosts due to an issue with a recent CrowdStrike update:  

“A single point of failure in a cybersecurity strategy has proven time and time again to be a threat to our national security. We cannot continue to accept and allow software problems to cripple our civilian and government infrastructure—answers in this case are necessary, and a reexamination across the board of cyber-safeguards is needed moving forward,” said Senator Eric Schmitt.

BACKGROUND: 

• In light of today’s IT disruptions, Senator Schmitt is requesting an in-person or virtual briefing with acting DoD CIO to discuss any disruptions as a result of the software update issued by CrowdStrike. He requests this briefing by July 26, 2024.
• Although CrowdStrike and Microsoft have publicly stated their systems are in the process of being restored, the entities affected by this abrupt outage could take weeks and even months to properly recover.
• The wide-ranging impact of this unintentional disruption caused by a faulty software update should also serve as a warning signal regarding the United States’ vulnerability to hostile forces abroad that seek to undermine our national security, particularly China. 
• Senator Schmitt previously sent a letter to the Department of Defense regarding their use of a single vendor for cybersecurity services, and Senator Schmitt successfully got an amendment addressing the cybersecurity monoculture at DoD through this year’s NDAA markup.

Read the full letter here.