Nashville data experts weigh in on global outage

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — In the aftermath of Friday’s cyber incident , data experts are warning to safeguard your personal information. News 2 asked Nashville cyber experts what happened and how can we stay safe from a future cyber hit.

Planes grounded, banking stopped, television stations not able to broadcast – the overnight cyber hit has Americans, and the world, asking what went wrong? To get answers, we gathered four top data security experts from a Nashville company called Sertainty . The answer is that it’ll take time to know.

“We are not going to know what happened until six months, maybe a year,” said Rich Streeter, operations director at Sertainty.

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What we do know is that CrowdStrike introduced an update, which did not interact like it should, shutting down those computers. And, that’s why many people were stuck with a blue screen. In cybersecurity, these experts say there are no coincidences.

“At the end of the day, the coincidence that we are referring to here has to do with you had a major convention up there in Milwaukee. Milwaukee was one of the airports that was shut down,” said Dan Fischer, executive vice president of Alignment and Innovation at Sertainty.

They say the bad actor could be a lone wolf, an espionage company, or another country looking to impact national security. But the timing, hours after the Republican National Convention, which is a national security event, raises red flags within the cyber industry.

“The nation’s infrastructure that had the issue and incident last night are all considered critical infrastructure. Ones that are tied not only to the economy of the country, but also the security of the country,” said Tim White, general manager, Sertainty.

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They say some of the biggest damage is to trust, and Americans trusting that the system is safe.

How can you protect yourself and data? The expert say that backing up your data is important.

“Whatever is critically important to them and their family – like their passwords to their medical information, to their banking information…they should always keep a current paper backup to protect themselves and their family,” said Greg Taylor, president & CEO, Sertainty.

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