BDC Among Organizations Impacted by CrowdStrike Outage

Today's CrowdStrike outage has caused unprecedented disruptions across multiple sectors globally, with significant implications for Canada’s tech sector as well. The outage has grounded flights, disrupted hospitals and emergency services, and caused countless businesses to experience operational halts. Cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt described this event as “the largest IT outage in history.”

While the full impact on Canada’s tech sector is yet to be determined, early indications show some organizations have already reported disruptions. The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), a Crown corporation that provides funding and consulting services to Canadian entrepreneurs, announced on X (formerly known as Twitter) at 8:36 AM EDT that it was experiencing “some technology interruptions” due to the CrowdStrike global outage.

BDC Capital, the investment arm of BDC, is Canada’s largest and most active venture capital investor, managing over $6 billion in assets. Despite the disruption, BDC confirmed at approximately 11:30 AM EDT that it could “manually execute transactions” and was prioritizing urgent disbursements scheduled for the day. The corporation advised its clients to contact their BDC representatives for more information.

Phil Taylor, director of communications at BDC, told BetaKit in an email statement, “We have had no impacts to date. We have been able to establish a workaround process to expedite urgent disbursements manually.”

As affected organizations work towards recovery, this incident will likely prompt increased scrutiny of cybersecurity practices and a push for greater resilience in IT infrastructure across the tech sector and beyond. The widespread impact and severity of the outage have underscored the critical importance of robust security measures, thorough testing, and effective crisis management strategies.

Organizations may now place a stronger emphasis on developing and implementing comprehensive contingency plans to mitigate the effects of such disruptions. This includes ensuring that backup systems and manual processes are in place and can be swiftly activated in the event of an IT failure. Additionally, the incident may lead to a reevaluation of software update protocols, particularly for critical systems. Companies might adopt more stringent validation and testing procedures to ensure updates do not introduce vulnerabilities or cause operational disruptions.

In the broader context, this event serves as a catalyst for the tech sector to enhance its overall cybersecurity posture. By learning from this incident, organizations can improve their resilience against future threats, ensuring they are better prepared to maintain operational continuity and protect their assets in an increasingly digital and interconnected world.

The incident highlights the vulnerability of interconnected IT systems and the critical importance of cybersecurity. It underscores the necessity for organizations to have robust contingency plans and crisis management strategies to mitigate the effects of such widespread outages. The outage also serves as a stark reminder of the importance of thorough testing and validation processes for software updates, particularly those related to cybersecurity, to prevent similar incidents in the future.

As affected organizations work towards recovery, this incident will likely prompt increased scrutiny of cybersecurity practices and a push for greater resilience in IT infrastructure across the tech sector and beyond. The widespread impact and severity of the outage have underscored the critical importance of robust security measures, thorough testing, and effective crisis management strategies. Organizations may now place a stronger emphasis on developing and implementing comprehensive contingency plans to mitigate the effects of such disruptions. This includes ensuring that backup systems and manual processes are in place and can be swiftly activated in the event of an IT failure.

Additionally, the incident may lead to a reevaluation of software update protocols, particularly for critical systems. Companies might adopt more stringent validation and testing procedures to ensure updates do not introduce vulnerabilities or cause operational disruptions.

In the broader context, this event serves as a catalyst for the tech sector to enhance its overall cybersecurity posture. By learning from this incident, organizations can improve their resilience against future threats, ensuring they are better prepared to maintain operational continuity and protect their assets in an increasingly digital and interconnected world.