Springfield Standard

Senator Eric Schmitt has addressed a letter to Acting Chief Information Officer Leslie Beavers of the Department of Defense concerning widespread IT system outages affecting Microsoft Windows hosts. The disruptions have been linked to a recent update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

"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," stated Senator Schmitt.

In response to these IT disruptions, Senator Schmitt is seeking an in-person or virtual briefing with Acting CIO Beavers by July 26, 2024, to discuss any issues arising from the CrowdStrike update. While both CrowdStrike and Microsoft have indicated that their systems are being restored, affected entities may face recovery periods extending over weeks or months.

The senator emphasized that this incident underscores the United States' vulnerability to hostile forces aiming to compromise national security, specifically mentioning China as a potential threat. He highlighted his previous efforts addressing the reliance on single vendors for cybersecurity services at the Department of Defense. This initiative led to an amendment tackling cybersecurity monoculture being included in this year's National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) markup.

Read the full letter here.