Microsoft announced it will host a special conference in September to discuss the lessons and security measures the industry can take away from the CrowdStrike computer shutdown in July. The Windows Endpoint Security Ecosystem Summit is scheduled for September 10 at Microsoft’s Redmond, WA headquarters and will include representatives from Microsoft, CrowdStrike, and other cyber and computer security companies exploring changes in industry practices and the use of applications to prevent future computer shutdowns. An executive mentioned that the conference will address the use of applications relying more on Windows’ user mode instead of kernel mode, as the July outage occurred because Crowdstrike’s agent operated in kernel mode, giving software total access to a system’s resources and hardware, causing system-wide crashes. The discussion will also focus on implementing eBPF technology and safer programming languages like Rust. CrowdStrike blamed faulty testing software included in an update for the crash that shut down 8.5 million Windows machines on July 19, causing blue screens of death for systems worldwide. This article contains affiliate links, and a commission may be earned if a purchase is made through these links.
