--- title: CrowdStrike Accepts 'Most Epic Fail' Award at DEFCON... description: CrowdStrike's president, Michael Sentonas, accepted the 'Most Epic Fail' award at DEFCON's Pwnie Awards after a software update led to a global IT meltdown... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/crowdstrike-accepts-most-epic-fail-award-at-defcon-with-grace-iiweigylp twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: CrowdStrike Accepts 'Most Epic Fail' Award at DEFCON with Grace | daily.dev og:description: CrowdStrike's president, Michael Sentonas, accepted the 'Most Epic Fail' award at DEFCON's Pwnie Awards after a software update led to a global IT meltdown... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/crowdstrike-accepts-most-epic-fail-award-at-defcon-with-grace-iiweigylp og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/IIweIGYLP.png og:image:alt: CrowdStrike Accepts 'Most Epic Fail' Award at DEFCON with Grace og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # CrowdStrike Accepts 'Most Epic Fail' Award at DEFCON with Grace **[Collections](https://daily.dev/sources/collections)** · 2 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary CrowdStrike's president, Michael Sentonas, accepted the 'Most Epic Fail' award at DEFCON's Pwnie Awards after a software update led to a global IT meltdown affecting over 8.5 million Windows machines. Sentonas highlighted the importance of transparency and accountability while outlining steps for improvement, including overhauling testing and update protocols and involving external reviewers to prevent future issues. ## Content # CrowdStrike Accepts 'Most Epic Fail' Award at DEFCON, Vows Improvement CrowdStrike's president Michael Sentonas recently took the stage at the DEFCON hacking conference to accept the 'Most Epic Fail' award at the Pwnie Awards. This recognition came after a significant IT meltdown caused by a faulty software update from CrowdStrike, which resulted in a global outage affecting over 8.5 million Windows machines. The Pwnie Awards, celebrated within the cybersecurity community, honor both achievements and noteworthy failures. CrowdStrike's misstep was attributed to a mismatch in inputs and an out-of-bounds read issue in their Falcon EDR sensor, triggering critical failures in Windows systems worldwide. Sentonas accepted the award with commendable sportsmanship and humility, acknowledging the company's error and the gravity of the impact. During his speech, Sentonas emphasized the importance of transparency and accountability, noting that owning up to mistakes is crucial for growth and trust within the industry. The company has faced tough questions from customers and cybersecurity professionals at both Black Hat and DEFCON, leading to vows for substantial improvements. CrowdStrike is currently overhauling its testing and update protocols and involving external reviewers to ensure better resilience moving forward. Footage of Sentonas's speech was positively received within the community, reinforcing support for CrowdStrike's commitment to change and improvement. By openly addressing their failings and pledging to implement more rigorous processes, CrowdStrike aims to patch things up and maintain trust within the cybersecurity industry. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don’t just attend KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon, Merge Forward your experience\!](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-just-attend-kubecon-cloudnativecon-merge-forward-your-experience--l0rpp73x8) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing H2 2026 KCDs](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-h2-2026-kcds-m96goajm1) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two months of Open Community Groups](https://daily.dev/posts/two-months-of-open-community-groups-asf52zhbs) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Unveils Schedule for KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Europe 2026](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-unveils-schedule-for-kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe-2026-ikhcoa5cb) · CNCF · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Debuts KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Japan 2026 Schedule](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-debuts-kubecon-cloudnativecon-japan-2026-schedule-xp5pyudub) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#company-culture](https://daily.dev/tags/company-culture), [#cyber](https://daily.dev/tags/cyber), [#defcon](https://daily.dev/tags/defcon) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/crowdstrike-accepts-most-epic-fail-award-at-defcon-with-grace-iiweigylp) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"CrowdStrike Accepts 'Most Epic Fail' Award at DEFCON with Grace","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/crowdstrike-accepts-most-epic-fail-award-at-defcon-with-grace-iiweigylp","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/crowdstrike-accepts-most-epic-fail-award-at-defcon-with-grace-iiweigylp"},"datePublished":"2024-08-11T17:43:35.607Z","dateModified":"2025-09-06T02:46:55.484Z","description":"CrowdStrike's president, Michael Sentonas, accepted the 'Most Epic Fail' award at DEFCON's Pwnie Awards after a software update led to a global IT meltdown...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2f39cd104e3486739958b417b421ef80?_a=AQAEuiZ","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2f39cd104e3486739958b417b421ef80?_a=AQAEuiZ","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Collections","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Collections","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--fk_6ycEi--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780996001/logos/collections?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/collections"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/crowdstrike-accepts-most-epic-fail-award-at-defcon-with-grace-iiweigylp","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"company-culture,cyber,defcon","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Collections","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/collections"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"CrowdStrike Accepts 'Most Epic Fail' Award at DEFCON with Grace"}]} ```