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. One of the significant difficulties encountered was maintaining effective communication with clients throughout the crisis, which included faculty and staff but not students. During the rollout of our solutions our approach to each group was identical, but there does seem to be room for future optimization by catering the approach to each client group. Transparent and timely updates were crucial in managing client expectations and demonstrating our commitment to resolving the issue. We implemented a structured yet dynamic communication plan, providing regular progress reports and outlining the steps being taken to address and rectify the situation. This proactive engagement was vital in maintaining client trust and demonstrating our dedication to both service and security. Our goal was not only to provide updates but to explain why the outage, while inconvenient and disruptive, illustrated how these services were pivotal in protecting our clients. Furthermore, the incident underscored the importance of encryption as a critical security measure. While the encrypted hard drives contributed to the complexity of the repair process and precluded a remote solution, they successfully protected client data from unauthorized access, reinforcing the value of stringent security practices. In the immediate aftermath, this experience allowed us to illustrate to clients the inherent balance between robust security and responsive support while creating a touchstone experience for future communications. In summary, the CrowdStrike interruption serves as a case study in balancing necessary security measures with effective client service and communication. The experience has underscored the importance of integrating client support considerations more fully into our security strategies, ensuring that we not only protect data but also maintain seamless service delivery in times of crisis. This presentation will explore these dimensions in detail, offering insights into how our security framework can evolve to better support both our clients and our operational resilience.
