Josephine Teo on lessons from outage of IT systems caused by CrowdStrike

The Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) has set up an internal taskforce to engage relevant partners to gain insights into the IT global outage caused by CrowdStrike and assess if further measures should be taken to improve Singapore’s resilience when such disruptions occur. Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo announced this in reply to MPs’ questions in Parliament on Wednesday (Aug 7) on the global disruption caused by a faulty software update on Jul 19 by CrowdStrike. “Fortuitously, Government services and most essential services in Singapore were unaffected by the outages,” she said. However, some businesses were affected. Most of the affected IT systems had recovered within a day, and services returned to normal. Mrs Teo said one key lesson can already be reinforced. System owners should have plans in place to help them to recover quickly from unexpected disturbances. On its part, the Government adopts a risk-based approach to ensure that its critical systems and essential services are resilient. Businesses must also play their part to improve their resilience when disruptions occur and recognise that it is in their own and their customers’ interests to do so, she said. Mrs Teo said MDDI offers practical resources and financial assistance to encourage robust IT practices. While these efforts may not specifically address IT outages like the one related to CrowdStrike, they can help businesses prevent incidents and recover more quickly should disruptions occur, she said. She urged all businesses to take advantage of the Government’s resource support to strengthen their digital resilience.