CrowdStrike's reputation has a 'major black eye.' Earning back customers' trust will be an uphill struggle.

• Major airlines, banks, and retailers were disrupted by an IT outage linked to CrowdStrike.
• Regaining its reputation will likely be an enormous task for the cybersecurity firm.
• Analysts and other experts explain how it should respond.

CrowdStrike, a company that was thrust into the global spotlight on Friday, has a long road to travel before it wins back customers' trust.

Major airlines, banks, and retailers around the world experienced widespread disruptions linked to an IT outage on Friday after Microsoft reported problems linked to an issue at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

Dan Ives, a technology analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote in a note seen by Business Insider that it's "clearly a major black eye" for cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Ives said the company would have to "go into next gear over the coming weeks and months to curtail some damage from this."

The fallout from the outage was swift as CrowdStrike's shares dropped by as much as 20% in premarket trading on Friday. Meanwhile, Microsoft shares fell by 3% in premarket trade on Friday.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz apologized for the incident in an X post on Friday. He said: "We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up."

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also addressed the outage in a LinkedIn post on Friday. He wrote: "Yesterday, CrowdStrike released an update that began impacting IT systems globally. We are aware of this issue and are working closely with CrowdStrike and across the industry to provide customers technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online."

Restoring user confidence

Crisis management is likely top of the agenda if CrowdStrike has any hope of regaining its reputation.

Howard Robinson, director of Astute, a PR company with experience in crisis management, told BI: "Transparency and communication are going to be key to not only navigating this current crisis but also restoring user confidence and faith."

Kate Hartley, author of "Communicate in a Crisis" and cofounder of crisis simulation firm Polpeo, told BI that many people might not have heard of CrowdStrike before the incident, but "now they know it for all the wrong reasons, so its response really matters."

Robinson added that CrowdStrike likely has a detailed crisis management plan to guide it through this PR catastrophe.

"Reputation can take years to earn, hours to damage, but it is largely their own response that will determine if it is salvageable or not," he said.

Customers could jump ship

As AJ Bell analyst Dan Coatsworth said, the outage could create serious problems for organizations that rely solely on it to protect their online operations.

"Prolonged disruption is another matter, potentially causing damage to companies and economies," said Coatsworth.

We might even see some customers switching to rival platforms as a result of the blunder.

CrowdStrike didn't immediately respond to a request for comment made by Business Insider.