Forbes - USA (2020-03)

24

F

R

O

N

T

R

U

N

N

E

R

N

EW

B

IL

LI

O

N

A

IR

E^

BY

A

N

G

EL

A

U

• Y

EU

N

G

;^ B

U

Y^

H

O

LD

S

EL

L^

BY

C

H

RI

ST

IA

N

K

RE

ZN

A

R^

PH

O

TO

G

R

A

PH

B

Y

T

IM

O

TH

Y

A

RC

H

IB

A

LD

F

O

R^

FO

RB

ES

;^ I

LL

U

ST

R

AT

IO

N

B

Y^

DA

VI

D

M

A

H

O

N

EY

year ago, the world didn’t really know much about CrowdStrike, and

George Kurtz, the cybersecurity fi rm’s cofounder, was perfectly happy

with that. This all changed in September when a redacted transcript of

President Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

became public. In it, the two men discussed CrowdStrike, which had

been hired by the Democratic National Committee to investigate Russian hacking dur-

ing the 2016 election, and Trump pushed Zelensky to investigate the fi rm, claiming it

had stashed a DNC server in Ukraine.

“I didn’t think when we started a company, we’d be mentioned by two heads of state,”

sighs Kurtz, 49, who says his company did nothing wrong—and never set up a server

in Ukraine. “The best thing for us is to keep our heads down and focus on stopping

breaches. The rest of it is kind of noise.”

When clients like the DNC hire CrowdStrike, the Sunnyvale, California, company

deploys its cloud-based breach-detection software, called Falcon, to scan for hackers.

This can be a lucrative endeavor. CrowdStrike can be hired for one-off , bespoke inves-

tigations—as with the DNC—but a 4,000-company client roster that includes Amazon

and Credit Suisse pay a monthly $6.99 per computer to keep Falcon monitoring their

systems. All this work should amount to $465 million in revenue during CrowdStrike’s

A

New Billionaire

QUID PRO... WHOA!

FOFORBES.CRBES.COOMM MARCH 20^20

It’s hard to imagine that

I didn’t know about the

French politician Simone

Veil until she died, at 89, in

2017. But when I read her
      obituary, I knew I wanted
      to learn more. She led
      an extraordinary life. So
      I bought her memoir, A
      Life (Editions Stock, 2007),
      which was translated into
      English by Tamsin Black.
      Veil is considered one of the
      heroines of modern France.
      Her journey is both surprising
      and inspiring: She was an
      Auschwitz survivor, but her
      brother and parents were
      killed in the Holocaust. She
      trained as a lawyer and
      became a renegade fi ghter,
      in a Catholic country, for a
      woman’s right to choose. She
      managed to win over a na-
      tion and change the course
      of history. I found her life
      and the way she wrote about
      it fascinating, so I’ve been
      recommending her book
      oft en. It seems that every-
      one is used to men “making”
      history; I’m very interested
      in att empting to recalibrate
      that. Veil stood up for what
      she believed in—and in turn
      changed life for women
      in France.

Tory Burch

Fashion Mogul

Book Value

Leaders from the worlds

of business, academia,

entertainment and

politics share what’s on

their bedside table.

A LIFE

by Simone Veil

George Kurtz has struck it rich with CrowdStrike—

despite a trumped-up allegation about his cybersecurity

company from the 45th president.