Google Wiz and Cybersecurity

Google is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire Israeli cybersecurity firm Wiz for up to $23 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. While the sum is substantial, some have expressed surprising discontent, viewing it as “very good, but not great.” This sentiment revolves around the missed opportunity for an IPO and the loss of an Israeli giant that will no longer grow locally. Additionally, if Wiz had been registered in Israel, the transaction would have generated higher revenues for the state treasury. Google Wiz and Cybersecurity certainly aren’t hard to fathom.

Founded by Assaf Rappaport, a former officer from Israel’s elite 8200 intelligence unit, Wiz has quickly risen in value. The unit has a track record of producing tech entrepreneurs, significantly contributing to Israel’s robust tech industry. The potential deal underscores the resilience of Israel’s tech sector, which accounts for about 20% of the country’s output and 15% of jobs, even as the war in Gaza pressures the economy.

However, with today’s massive cyber attack inadvertently caused by a cybersecurity company, some may hesitate to make such an investment. The attack, linked to a faulty system update from CrowdStrike, a U.S. firm used by over half of Fortune 500 companies, resulted in widespread disruptions. These included grounding flights, hampering public transit systems, and affecting operations at banks and hospitals globally.

CrowdStrike’s CEO, George Kurtz, apologized for the disruptions and noted that the issue had been identified and resolved. The incident, not a security breach or cyberattack, caused Microsoft Windows systems to crash, affecting public transit systems, stock exchanges, and various institutions worldwide.

Google Wiz and Cybersecurity

Despite this, Google’s acquisition of Wiz appears strategically sound, aiming to enhance its cloud security capabilities and position Google Cloud as a major competitor to Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. The advanced technology from Wiz will help Google close the gap in the fiercely competitive cloud security market.

Cybersecurity expert Chuck Brooks sees the acquisition as a game-changer, enhancing Google’s ability to conduct comprehensive threat assessments on IT infrastructure and improving DevOps processes. By integrating Wiz’s framework, Google aims to streamline development jobs and make them more secure.

However, such bold mergers are not without risk. Tech advisor Vaclav Vincalek cautions that mega transactions can be dangerous for both companies, citing historical examples like Microsoft’s acquisitions of Skype and Nokia, and Google’s purchase of Motorola.

Pierre Bourgeix, CEO and Founder of ESI Convergint, believes the acquisition could position Google to compete head-to-head with Amazon, especially given Microsoft Azure’s recent security breaches. Omri Weinberg, Co-Founder and CRO of DoControl, views the deal as a significant statement about the importance of cloud security.

In summary, Google’s potential $23 billion acquisition of Wiz not only highlights the value of Israel’s tech talent but also represents a strategic move to enhance its cloud security capabilities. This positions Google as a major force in the cybersecurity market, with the potential to set new standards for cloud security and influence industry best practices.

More on today’s outage

Public transit systems in the U.S. reported impacts. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in Washington, D.C., said its “website and some of our internal systems are currently down,” but that trains and buses were running as scheduled. In New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority also said its buses and trains were unaffected but that “some MTA customer information systems are temporarily offline due to a worldwide technical outage.”

Around the world, the outages disrupted London’s Stock Exchange, caused major train delays in the U.K., sent British broadcaster Sky News off air, forced medical facilities in Europe and the U.S. to cancel some services and caused disruptions at airports in Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong and India.

Some U.S. border crossings saw impacts amid the outage: Traffic stalled on the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit with Windsor, Ontario, Canada, as well as at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, the Detroit Free Press reported. CBP One, the Customs and Border Patrol app, and the agency’s border wait times website, each appeared to experience outages.

On a sweeter note, Krispy Kreme is giving away free doughnuts Friday due to the global tech outage.

Dubai International Airport said on X it is operating normally following “a global system outage that affected the check-in process for some airlines.” It added the affected airlines “promptly switched to an alternate system, allowing normal check-in operations to resume swiftly.”

Portland, Oregon, Mayor Ted Wheeler issued an emergency declaration Friday over the tech outage, with a statement noting the outages are affecting city servers, employee computers and emergency communications. Meanwhile, the Maryland Department of Emergency Management increased its state activation level from “normal” to “partial,” citing the tech outage. A post on X says a “partial” activation is for incidents that require “significant monitoring or resources,” with additional emergency operations staffing from other agencies, functions and supporting organizations.

CrowdStrike is a popular cybersecurity software company created in 2012 by CEO George Kurtz, along with Dmitri Alperovitch, and Gregg Marston. According to its website, CrowdStrike has the “world’s most advanced cloud-native platform that protects and enables the people, processes and technologies that drive modern enterprise.”

According to an alert sent by CrowdStrike to its clients and reviewed by Reuters, the company’s “Falcon Sensor” software caused Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, known informally as the “Blue Screen of Death.” Kurtz said “there was an issue with a Falcon content update for Windows Hosts” but customers “remain fully protected,” according to Kurtz’s post on X.

The CrowdStrike outage crashed some computers at colleges Friday and hampered a popular software for enrolling students in K-12 schools for the fall. The University of Rochester, a private school in New York, told students to keep rebooting their systems until the problem was fixed. The University of Alabama’s technology office said its campus computers using Microsoft Windows crashed. Rutgers University and the University of Kentucky also reported disruptions.

State and local law enforcement agencies across the country reported disruptions to 911 services after the outage hit. National reports of 911 outages peaked at more than 100 on Friday just before 3 a.m. according to Downdetector. Agencies in at least seven states reported temporary outages, including the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office and Faribault Police Department in Minnesota, 911 systems New Hampshire, Fulton County, Indiana, and Middletown, Ohio. Non-emergency and 911 calls to multiple dispatch centers in Alaska “were not able to be answered” for around seven hours overnight, Austin McDaniel, communications director for the Alaska Department of Public Safety, told USA TODAY in an email. “Dispatch centers switched to analog phone systems or to partner dispatch centers that were not impacted to continue taking calls,” he wrote. Systems in the state were back up as of 4:23 a.m. local time. The Phoenix Police Department was also impacted ‒ 911 call centers could take calls, but had to dispatch officers manually, the Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported.

The Federal Communications Commission said in an email to USA TODAY that it was aware of reports of disruptions to 911. “We’re closely working with other federal agencies to provide assistance and determine the extent of these service disruptions.”