Microsoft is hosting a conference in September for cybersecurityto discuss what can be improved after the CrowdStrike bug that caused a blackout on millions of Windows computers.
The outage affected many online services. Airlines canceled thousands of flights, logistics companies experienced delivery delays, and hospitals postponed medical appointments. Delta Air Lines, which said the outage cost $550 million, is seeking damages from CrowdStrike and Microsoft.
See also: Shareholders sue CrowdStrike over global Blackout
Microsoft will meet with CrowdStrike and other security companies on Sept. 10 in Redmond, Washington, to discuss how to prevent similar problems in the future. A Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC that conference attendees will look at the possibility of running more applications in a less protected mode of Windows, called user mode, instead of the more secure kernel mode.
Endpoint protection software from companies like Check Point, CrowdStrike, and SentinelOne currently relies on core functionality. This allows SentinelOne to monitor and prevent malicious actions, as well as prevent malware from disabling security solutions, according to a spokesperson.
User-mode applications are independent, meaning that if one crashes, it won’t affect the others. In contrast, a failure in a core application can cause the entire Windows operating system to crash. On July 19, CrowdStrike released a problematic content configuration update for the Falcon on Windows computers, with the aim of collecting data for new attacks. Unfortunately, this update caused operating system-level errors. IT administrators were forced to restart computers that received the update, which were experiencing the “blue screen of death.”
Read more: CrowdStrike: Delta Air Lines refused free help
A Microsoft spokesperson said that removing access to the Windows kernel would only resolve a small percentage of potential problems.
In recent years, access to the macOS has been restricted, with the company discouraging developers from using kernel extensions.
Attendees at Microsoft's event on September 10 will look at adopting eBPF technology, which ensures that programs run without causing system errors, and will also look at programming languages that offer safe memory management, such as Rust, an executive said.
Last year, Microsoft donated $1 million to the non-profit Rust Foundation, which provides grants to people working on this programming language.
Microsoft competes with CrowdStrike with its Defender for Endpoint product. Like any other cybersecurity company, this team will participate without preferential treatment, the executive said.
See more: CrowdStrike reveals root cause behind network outage
"We will provide more updates on these conversations after the event," Microsoft Vice President Aidan Marcuss said in a blog post.
Source: cnbc
