From Disruption to Insight: CrowdStrike's Impact on Client Services and Security

The recent CrowdStrike incident was a challenge for many institutions and IT departments across the globe. While this certainly presented a difficulty for Lehigh University, the outage also exposed opportunities for improvement in our support infrastructure and communication strategies. This presentation will explore how the inability to push remote solutions led to an intensive, in-person resolution process, revealing both the challenges and opportunities inherent in managing client services during a crisis. By examining the complexities of this situation, we will illustrate our dual focus on enhancing client communication and refining security best practices. The incident not only highlighted the importance of maintaining transparent, proactive client interactions but also underscored the necessity of balancing robust security practices with operational efficiency. Through this lens, we will discuss the lessons learned, the improvements made, and how these insights have strengthened our overall approach to client support and data protection.