Microsoft to Host Security Summit with CrowdStrike After Outage

Microsoft Corp. will host a summit on Windows security at its Redmond, Washington headquarters on September 10. The event, named the Windows Endpoint Security Ecosystem Summit, aims to address improvements in Windows security and third-party best practices following a recent global outage caused by a faulty update from CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. This outage affected 8.5 million Windows devices and sparked debates on whether security firms should maintain kernel-level access to Windows operating systems.

The summit will bring together Microsoft engineers, cybersecurity vendors including CrowdStrike, and government representatives. Discussions will focus on enhancing the resiliency of Windows systems, safe deployment practices, and potential changes to the Windows platform and API sets. There will also be sessions on adopting memory-safe programming languages like Rust to bolster security. This event is part of Microsoft's broader efforts to overhaul its security protocols following years of criticism and security challenges.