Exclusive: Lawmakers dig into federal government's CrowdStrike use

Zoom in: Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) sent a letter to the General Services Administration asking for more details about how the global outage impacted the federal government and what steps the agency has taken since the event to improve network resilience.

• The senators also said the incident laid bare the risks of relying on "too few contractors to operate such a large share of the federal government's IT systems."
• The GSA is the agency responsible for negotiating federal agencies' contracts with private companies, including IT vendors.

What they're saying: "Your agency should ensure that the IT systems our country relies on are as secure and resilient as possible," the senators wrote in the letter.

• "This includes considering any potential reliability and security threats that could be mitigated through increased supply chain diversification."

Catch up quick: The CrowdStrike outage had a ripple effect throughout government offices across the country.

• The Social Security Administration had to close all of its offices.
• Customs and Border Protection experienced processing delays.
• And some Indian Health Service clinics faced service disruptions.

Between the lines: The CrowdStrike outage was a wake-up call for all organizations, including government offices, that reliance on a single tech vendor across all networks can make them more vulnerable to outages and malicious cyber threats.

What's next: The senators requested that the GSA respond to their questions by the end of the month.

• A House Homeland Security subcommittee is hosting the first congressional hearing about the outage on Sept. 24.