Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike is facing legal action from shareholders who claim they were “misled” over the “robustness” of its technology.
More than eight million computers worldwide crashed last month when the cyber security firm sent out a software update to customers on July 19.
A buggy update to CrowdStrike’s popular hacking-prevention software caused Windows PCs to malfunction, triggering widespread global travel and communications chaos.
CrowdStrike chief executive George Kurtz said the tech firm is “deeply sorry” for the issue and the global disruption it caused.
In an interview with NBC, Mr Kurtz said a faulty update that contained a “software bug” which was the culprit.
But now the company has found itself in hot water again with shareholders furious about the previous pandemonium.
Lawyers have since claimed CrowdStrike defrauded investors by concealing flaws with its software testing and have filed a case against them in court.
The lawsuit, filed in Austin, US, this week, alleges the firm's “assurances about its technology were materially false and misleading”.
The papers also state that CrowdStrike's share price plummeted 32 per cent in the 12 days following the global outage, wiping out $25bn (£19bn) of its market value.
The legal complaint quotes statements by Mr Kurtz during a conference call in March, in which he described the company's software as "validated, tested and certified".
A spokesperson for CrowdStrike, which is based in Texas, said: "We believe this case lacks merit and we will vigorously defend the company."
Speaking at the time of the crash, Mr Kurtz said: "We identified this very quickly and remediated the issue.”
He added that its systems were constantly being updated to ward off “adversaries that are out there”.
What is CrowdStrike?
CrowdStrike is one of the world’s most popular cybersecurity providers with a market cap of $83.48bn (£64.62bn).
Their main product is Falcon, which is a cloud-based software built to keep hackers out of your work computer.
This operates like a tiny guard installed inside your computer that constantly keeps watch for suspicious activity and beams this info back to CrowdStrike’s command centre in the cloud to analyse using AI.
If a threat is detected, Falcon can take immediate action by quarantining infected files or devices, blocking access to dodgy websites or networks, or terminating any malicious processes.
