CrowdStrike sends $10 gift cards to IT workers as 'mea culpa'

Chief Business Officer Daniel Bernard said in an e-mail that the company recognises it caused 'additional work' for cybersecurity and IT staff who helped CrowdStrike’s clients recover.

By Jake Bleiberg

IT workers who have been working long hours to restore computer service from a global outage last week got a $10 gift card from CrowdStrike Holdings Inc., the cybersecurity company whose flawed update triggered the chaos.

In a Tuesday email, Chief Business Officer Daniel Bernard said the company recognises it caused “additional work” for cybersecurity and IT staff who helped CrowdStrike’s clients recover.

“And for that, we send our heartfelt thanks and apologies for the inconvenience,” he said in the email, which was reviewed by Bloomberg News. The message, which includes a code for an Uber Eats credit, reads, “To express our gratitude, your next cup of coffee or late night snack is on us!”

A CrowdStrike spokesperson, Kirsten Speas, confirmed that the credits were sent to “teammates and partners who have been helping customers through this situation” but said they didn’t go out to “customers or clients.” Speas didn’t elaborate on who received the gift cards or how many were sent.

The gesture, which was previously reported by TechCrunch, was greeted with some scorn on social media.