George Kurtz Explained
George Kurtz (born May 5, 1965) is an American businessman. He is the CEO of the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, which he co-founded with Dmitri Alperovitch.
In 2024, his company CrowdStrike crashed millions of Windows computers around the world, causing billions of dollars in economic losses in what has been called the largest outage in the history of information technology.[2]
Earlier, Kurtz co-wrote Hacking Exposed: Network Security Secrets & Solutions and founded Foundstone.[3] He was serving as chief technology officer of McAfee when that company released a patch that crashed many of its client's computers.[4] He is also an amateur racing driver.[5]
Early life and education
Kurtz grew up in Parsippany–Troy Hills, New Jersey, and attended Parsippany High School.[6] [1] He claims that he started programming video games on his Commodore when he was in fourth grade. He went on to build bulletin board systems in high school.[7]
Kurtz received a Bachelor of Science with a major in accounting from the private Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey.[8]
Career
Price Waterhouse and Foundstone
After college, Kurtz began his career at Price Waterhouse as a CPA. In 1993, Price Waterhouse made Kurtz one of its first employees in its new security group. In 1999, he co-wrote Hacking Exposed, a book about cybersecurity for network administrators, with Stuart McClure and Joel Scambray. The book sold more than 600,000 copies and was translated into more than 30 languages.[1] [9] Later that year he started a cybersecurity company, Foundstone, one of the first dedicated security consulting companies. Foundstone focused on vulnerability management software and services and developed a well-recognized incident response practice, with much of the Fortune 100 among its customers.[10]
McAfee
In August 2004, Foundstone was acquired for $86 million by McAfee, which appointed Kurtz to be senior vice president and general manager of risk management.[11] [12]
In October 2009, McAfee promoted him to chief technology officer and executive vice president.[13] Six months later, McAfee accidentally disrupted its customers' operations around the world when it pushed out a software update that deleted critical Windows XP system files and caused affected systems to bluescreen and enter a boot loop. "I'm not sure any virus writer has ever developed a piece of malware that shut down as many machines as quickly as McAfee did today," Ed Bott wrote at ZDNet.[14]
In 2010, Kurtz participated in Operation Aurora, the investigation of a series of cyber attacks against Google and several other companies.[15]
In 2011, he led McAfee's research around the emerging Night Dragon and Shady RAT threats, alongside Dmitri Alperovitch, who was then McAfee's vice president of threat research.[16]
Over time, Kurtz became frustrated that existing security technology functioned slowly and was not, as he perceived it, evolving at the pace of new threats.[17] On a flight, he watched the passenger seated next to him wait 15 minutes for McAfee software to load on his laptop, an incident he later cited as part of his inspiration for founding CrowdStrike.[18] [1] He resigned from McAfee in October 2011.[19]
CrowdStrike
In November 2011, Kurtz joined private equity firm Warburg Pincus as an "entrepreneur-in-residence"[20] [21] and began working on his next project, CrowdStrike. He, Gregg Marston (former chief financial officer at Foundstone), and Dmitri Alperovitch co-founded CrowdStrike in Irvine, California, formally announcing the company's launch in February 2012.[22] [23] Kurtz pitched the idea for the company to Warburg Pincus and secured $25 million in funding.[7] [24]
CrowdStrike shifted the focus from anti-malware and antivirus products (McAfee's approach to cybersecurity) to identifying the techniques used by hackers in order to spot threats.[25] [26] The company also developed a "cloud-first" model in order to reduce the software load on customers' computers.[25] CrowdStrike, now headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, attracted public interest in June 2016 for its role in investigating the Democratic National Committee cyber attacks,[18] and in May 2017, the company exceeded a valuation of $1 billion.[27] In 2019, CrowdStrike's $612 million initial public offering on the Nasdaq brought the company to a $6.6 billion valuation under Kurtz's leadership.[28] [29] In March 2020, when discussing company strategy at CrowdStrike, he said that "not one time have I regretted firing someone too fast."[30] In July 2020, an IDC report named CrowdStrike as the fastest-growing endpoint security software vendor.[31] He ranked on CRN's 2021 Top 100 Executives list.[32]
In 2023, Kurtz warned of cyber threats from China and criticized Microsoft’s response after Chinese hackers exploited a flaw in Microsoft's cloud email service to gain access to the email accounts of U.S. government employees.[33]
On July 19, 2024, CrowdStrike caused one of the largest information technology outages in history when it pushed out a software update that caused an estimated 8.5 million computers running Microsoft Windows to crash and left them unable to properly restart.[34] This disrupted industries and governmental operations around the world, causing economic losses estimated in the billions of dollars in what has been called the largest IT outage in history[35] and "historic in scale".[36] In a live interview on NBC's Today, CEO Kurtz apologized to the public. He said company leaders were "deeply sorry for the impact that we've caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this, including our companies".[37]
Personal life
Kurtz is Jewish.[38] Forbes estimated his net worth to be $2.3 billion as of July 30, 2024.[39]
Racing career
In 2016, Kurtz made his racing debut in the Pirelli World Challenge, driving an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 for TRG-AMR. He remained in the series for the following two years, winning the GTS Am class in 2017 at the wheel of a McLaren 570S GT4.[40] [41] In 2019, the championship was renamed the GT World Challenge America, which Kurtz contested with pro driver Colin Braun in the GT3 category.[42] The duo finished fifth in the Pro-Am standings. The duo reunited in 2020,[43] [44] when Kurtz made eight podiums, including his first overall win in GT3 machinery at Virginia International Raceway and another victory, to finish as the runner-up of Pro-Am.[45] [46]
In 2021, Kurtz again raced in the GTWC America series but also in prototype cars, competing in a Ligier JS P320 in the IMSA SportsCar Championship's LMP3 category.[47] [48] In that series, he competed solely in the endurance events, winning at Sebring and scoring a class podium at Watkins Glen.[49] Three missed weekends in the former series dropped Kurtz and Braun to sixth in the drivers' standings, with two class wins.
In 2022, Kurtz remained in both championships, scoring two podiums in IMSA, including third place in class at the 24 Hours of Daytona. In GTWC America, he won ten of 16 races, earning the title in the SRO3 class.[50] [51]
In 2023, Kurtz stepped up to the LMP2 category to compete full-time in the IMSA SCC, driving for his own Crowdstrike team supported by Algarve Pro Racing alongside Ben Hanley, with silver-ranked Nolan Siegel supporting the pair at the endurance rounds.[52] Kurtz and Hanley won at the season-ending Petit Le Mans and another race, but finished second in the standings, edged out by Paul-Loup Chatin and Ben Keating.[53] In the Michelin Endurance Trophy, which took into account placings solely within the four endurance races, the Kurtz-Hanley combo came out on top.[54] Kurtz also made his debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where he, Colin Braun, and James Allen won in the LMP2 Pro-Am subclass.[55] [56] Finally, he returned to the GTWC America to defend his title, and although Kurtz only finished third in the SRO3 category he claimed Pro-Am honours, having partnered with Braun throughout the year.[57] During the 2023–24 winter, Kurtz and Braun raced in the Asian Le Mans Series, where they and young pro Malthe Jakobsen won two races on their way to the championship.[58]
Record
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)
† Points only counted towards the Michelin Endurance Cup, and not the overall LMP2 Championship.
† Points only counted towards the Michelin Endurance Cup, and not the overall LMP3 Championship.
External links
Notes and References
- News: Velloor. Ravi. In Good Company: CrowdStrike's George Kurtz is in a race against hackers. November 15, 2017. The Straits Times. September 10, 2017. March 28, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180328024949/http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/crowdstrikes-kurtz-is-in-a-race-against-hackers. live.
- Web site: Milmo . Dan . Kollewe . Julia . Quinn . Ben . Taylor . Josh . Ibrahim . Mimi . July 19, 2024 . 'Largest IT outage in history' hits Microsoft Windows and causes global chaos . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20240725062302/https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jul/19/microsoft-windows-pcs-outage-blue-screen-of-death . July 25, 2024 . July 19, 2024 . The Guardian.
- Web site: George Kurtz . 2024-07-24 . www.carnegiecouncil.org . en-US . July 8, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240708184548/https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/people/george-kurtz . live .
- Web site: George Kurtz. CrowdStrike. November 15, 2017. February 3, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190203022131/https://www.crowdstrike.com/george-kurtz/. live.
- Web site: Dagys . John . June 6, 2023 . Kurtz Approaching Le Mans Debut With “Open Mind” – Sportscar365 . July 22, 2024 . sportscar365.com . en-US . July 25, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240725062235/https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/kurtz-entered-lmp2-with-open-mind-ahead-of-le-mans-debut/ . live .
- Westhoven, William. "Parsippany native leads charge against cyber attacks", Asbury Park Press, December 29, 2014. Accessed February 22, 2018. "A Parsippany native on the front lines of the global cyber wars says if you thought 2014 was wild, wait until 2015.... Kurtz, who spent much of his time in Parsippany fly fishing or playing for the Parsippany High School football team, started out as an accountant after graduating from Seton Hall University, after which he worked for firms such as Price Waterhouse."
- News: Yakowicz. Will. When Wall Street and Washington Get Hacked, They Call This Guy. November 15, 2017. Inc. September 2016. July 22, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190722040035/https://www.inc.com/magazine/201609/will-yakowicz/2016-inc5000-crowdstrike-better-way-defend-against-hackers.html. live.
- Web site: George Kurtz: CEO & Founder CrowdStrike . 2024-07-25 . crowdstrike.com . en . February 3, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190203022131/https://www.crowdstrike.com/george-kurtz/ . live .
- News: Influencers - George Kurtz. November 17, 2017. SC Media. August 22, 2017.
- News: High. Peter. Security Advice From The CEO Of The World's Newest Unicorn - CrowdStrike. November 17, 2017. Forbes. May 23, 2017. May 23, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170523154448/https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterhigh/2017/05/23/the-ceo-of-the-worlds-newest-unicorn-on-how-to-secure-your-enterprise/#415db24853ee. live.
- News: Fisher. Dennis. McAfee Buys Security Consulting Firm Foundstone. November 15, 2017. eWeek. August 16, 2004. July 25, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240725062234/https://www.eweek.com/security/mcafee-buys-security-consulting-firm-foundstone/. live.
- News: McLaughlin. Kevin. McAfee Looking For New CTO After Kurtz Steps Down. November 17, 2017. CRN. October 18, 2011. May 18, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220518090553/https://www.crn.com/news/security/231901092/mcafee-looking-for-new-cto-after-kurtz-steps-down.htm. live.
- News: McAfee Names George Kurtz EVP and CTO. November 15, 2017. Channel Times. October 7, 2009.
- Web site: Ed Bott . April 21, 2010 . Defective McAfee update causes worldwide meltdown of XP PCs . July 21, 2024 . ZDNet.
- News: Jackson . William . September 1, 2010 . How Google attacks changed the security game . December 14, 2017 . GCN.
- News: Raywood. Dan. McAfee CTO warns of new combined threat named 'Night Dragon'. December 14, 2017. SC Media UK. February 10, 2011. July 25, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240725065456/https://insight.scmagazineuk.com/. live.
- News: Fox-Brewster. Thomas. Duelling Unicorns: CrowdStrike Vs. Cylance In Brutal Battle To Knock Hackers Out. November 17, 2017. Forbes. July 6, 2016. September 11, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160911015121/http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2016/07/06/duelling-unicorns-crowdstrike-vs-cylance-in-brutal-battle-to-knock-hackers-out/. live.
- News: Marwan. Samar. CrowdStrike Helped Trace The DNC Hack To Russia -- Now Business Is Booming. November 15, 2017. Forbes. July 11, 2017.
- News: Finkle. Jim. McAfee loses high-profile researcher and CTO. November 15, 2017. Reuters. October 18, 2011.
- News: CrowdStrike IPO Seeks To Raise $100M, Reveals Strength Of Channel. CRN. March 30, 2021. April 18, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210418121420/https://www.crn.com/news/security/crowdstrike-ipo-seeks-to-raise-100m-reveals-strength-of-channel. live.
- News: Stealth startup CrowdStrike wants to obliterate security threats, raises $26M. geekwire.com. March 30, 2021. February 5, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210205014236/https://www.geekwire.com/2012/stealthy-crowdstrike-obliterate-security-threats-raises-26m/. live.
- News: Ex-McAfee execs start security firm, CrowdStrike. November 15, 2017. Reuters. February 23, 2012.
- News: Rao. Leena. Former McAfee CTO Debuts Stealthy Security Technology Startup CrowdStrike With $26M In Funding. November 15, 2017. TechCrunch. February 23, 2012.
- News: Outmaneuvered at Their Own Game, Antivirus Makers Struggle to Adapt. November 15, 2017. CNBC. January 2, 2013. July 25, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240725071021/https://www.cnbc.com/id/100348891. live.
- News: Hackett. Robert. Standing up at the gates of hell: CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz. November 15, 2017. Fortune. July 29, 2015. May 29, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160529191620/http://fortune.com/2015/07/29/crowdstrike-cybersecurity-george-kurtz/. live.
- News: Kerner. Sean Michael. Former McAfee CTO Strikes Back with Crowdstrike. November 15, 2017. eSecurity Planet. June 21, 2013.
- News: Hackett. Robert. Hack Investigator CrowdStrike Reaches $1 Billion Valuation. November 17, 2017. Fortune. May 17, 2017. May 29, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170529182052/http://fortune.com/2017/05/17/hack-crowdstrike-billion/. live.
- News: Novinson . Michael . 10 Hot Cybersecurity Companies To Watch In 2020 – CrowdStrike . February 8, 2021 . CRN . December 31, 2019 . April 19, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210419152228/https://www.crn.com/slide-shows/security/10-hot-cybersecurity-companies-to-watch-in-2020/3 . live .
- News: Schubarth . Cromwell . Why CrowdStrike's CEO isn't surprised his company equaled Symantec in value in its Wall Street debut . February 8, 2021 . Silicon Valley Business Journal . June 12, 2019 . September 20, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210920151957/https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2019/06/12/crowdstrike-ipo-crwd-george-kurtz.html . live .
- Web site: CrowdStrike CEO Says he Regrets Not Firing People Quicker - dot.LA . July 19, 2024 . dot.la . en . July 20, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240720012530/https://dot.la/crowdstrike-ceo-george-kurtz-2645385654.html . live .
- News: Knowles . Catherine . CrowdStrike recognised as leading endpoint security vendor on global scale . March 5, 2021 . SecurityBrief EU . July 6, 2020 . en . March 4, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210304095146/https://securitybrief.eu/story/crowdstrike-recognised-as-leading-endpoint-security-vendor-on-global-scale . live .
- https://www.crn.com/news/security/strike-first-strike-hard-how-george-kurtz-has-built-crowdstrike-into-a-cybersecurity-powerhouse "Strike First, Strike Hard: How George Kurtz Has Built CrowdStrike Into A Cybersecurity Powerhouse"
- News: CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz on China, Microsoft and the SEC . CNBC . December 14, 2023 . July 19, 2024 . July 22, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240722160714/https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/14/crowdstrike-ceo-george-kurtz-on-china-microsoft-and-the-sec.html . live .
- Web site: Weston . David . Helping our customers through the CrowdStrike outage . July 20, 2024 . Microsoft . July 20, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240720155434/https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2024/07/20/helping-our-customers-through-the-crowdstrike-outage/ . live .
- Web site: Milmo . Dan . Kollewe . Julia . Quinn . Ben . Taylor . Josh . Ibrahim . Mimi . July 19, 2024 . 'Largest IT outage in history' hits Microsoft Windows and causes global chaos . July 19, 2024 . The Guardian . July 25, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240725062302/https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jul/19/microsoft-windows-pcs-outage-blue-screen-of-death . live .
- News: Sorkin . Andrew Ross . Mattu . Ravi . Warner . Bernhard . Kessler . Sarah . Merced . Michael J. de la . Hirsch . Lauren . Livni . Ephrat . Gaffney . Austyn . July 19, 2024 . Counting the Costs of a Global IT Outage . July 20, 2024 . The New York Times . en-US . 0362-4331 . July 19, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240719230410/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/19/business/dealbook/tech-outage-crowdstrike-microsoft.html . live .
- Web site: CrowdStrike CEO: 'We know what the issue is' and are resolving it . July 19, 2024 . TODAY.com . en.
- News: July 26, 2022 . CrowdStrike to buy Israeli cybersecurity cos for $2b . July 22, 2024 . Globes . en . July 23, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240723092430/https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-crowdstrike-to-buy-israeli-cybersecurity-cos-for-2b-1001419418 . live .
- Web site: George Kurtz . 2024-07-30 . Forbes . en.
- Web site: 2017-09-19 . GMG Closes Out 2017 Season with Two Additional Pirelli World Challenge Championships . 2024-07-25 . GMG Racing . en-US.
- News: Malsher . David . August 13, 2017 . Utah PWC: James delivers fourth GTS win for Panoz . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20180625050133/https://www.motorsport.com/pwc/news/utah-pwc-james-delivers-fourth-gts-win-for-panoz-941079/ . June 25, 2018 . November 15, 2017 . Motorsport.com.
- News: Myrehn . Ryan . 1 February 2019 . CrowdStrike to Make GT3 Debut, Continue GT4 Program . 1 March 2019 . sportscar365 . John Dagys Media.
- News: July 22, 2020 . Pirelli Paddock Pass: George Kurtz – Sportscar365 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20210228180536/https://sportscar365.com/sro/sro-america/world-challenge-america/pirelli-paddock-pass-george-kurtz-2/ . February 28, 2021 . February 8, 2021 . Sportscar365.
- News: 11 February 2020 . CrowdStrike Racing Expands Motorsports Program for 2020 . 9 July 2020 . gt-world-challenge-america.com . SRO Motorsports Group.
- News: July 20, 2017 . George Kurtz: Leader On And Off The Track . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20180625052003/https://speedsport.com/road-racing/other-road-racing/george-kurtz-pirelli-challenge/2/ . June 25, 2018 . November 15, 2017 . Speed Sport.
- Web site: 2020-10-05 . Braun/Kurtz winners at IMS, Fuentes takes GTWC title . 2024-07-25 . RACER . en-US.
- News: February 3, 2021 . DXDT Racing Expands Lineups for 2021 SRO America Effort . February 3, 2021 . gt-world-challenge-america.com . SRO Motorsports Group.
- Web site: Kurtz, McMurry Join CORE For 2021 LMP3 Endurance Races . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20201208162232/http://coreautosport.com/2020/12/08/kurtz-mcmurry-join-core-for-2021-lmp3-endurance-races/ . December 8, 2020 . December 8, 2020 . CORE Autosport . en-US.
- Web site: 2021-03-21 . JDC-Miller Cadillac triumphs at Sebring, Porsche sweeps GT . 2024-07-25 . RACER . en-US.
- News: Goodwin . Graham . December 4, 2021 . CrowdStrike Racing Switch To Riley Motorsports For 2022 SRO America Campaign . December 4, 2021 . dailysportscar.com.
- Web site: 2022-10-09 . Kurtz takes 10th overall win, Chouest claims GT4 title with sweep at Indianapolis . 2024-07-25 . RACER . en-US.
- Web site: CrowdStrike Racing Embarks on LMP2 Program for 2023 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup . December 13, 2022 . CrowdStrike Racing . en-US.
- Web site: Keating, Kurtz, Robinson Reflect On 2023 Successes & What's To Come . 2024-04-26 . www.dailysportscar.com.
- Web site: cox . sam . 2023-10-15 . CrowdStrike Racing by APR wins Petit Le Mans, Michelin Endurance Cup and Le Mans entry for Kurtz . 2024-07-25 . Algarve Pro Racing . en-US.
- Web site: Euwema . Davey . 11 June 2023 . Inter Europol Takes Breakthrough LMP2 Victory at Le Mans . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230624193837/https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/inter-europol-takes-breakthrough-lmp2-win-at-le-mans/ . 24 June 2023 . 24 June 2023 . SportsCar365.
- Web site: O'Connell . RJ . 12 June 2023 . Le Mans Centenary, By The Numbers . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230624193838/https://www.dailysportscar.com/2023/06/12/le-mans-centenary-by-the-numbers.html . 24 June 2023 . 24 June 2023 . DailySportsCar.
- Web site: 2023-10-11 . CHAMPIONS: George Kurtz, Colin Braun and CrowdStrike by Riley Capture Fanatec GT World Challenge America Pro-Am Driver and Team Titles . 2024-07-25 . Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS . en-US.
- Web site: 2024-02-11 . Kurtz, Braun lead Crowdstrike to AsLMS title and Le Mans invite . 2024-07-25 . RACER . en-US.
- Web site: George Kurtz Results . January 10, 2024 . motorsportstats.com . July 25, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240725071042/https://www.motorsportstats.com/driver/george-kurtz/results . live .