Microsoft to convene cybersecurity summit following CrowdStrike-induced disruption
Microsoft will convene a summit for the improvement of cybersecurity systems in September, it said on Friday, after last month’s CrowdStrike faulty update propelled a global IT outage.
The summit is the first of many giant steps the company shall take to forestall issues that affected nearly 8.5 million Windows devices on July 19, paralysing operations across major airlines, banks, and health services.
The event will be held on September 10 at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash. The company also plans to invite government representatives to the event, it added in a blog.
“The CrowdStrike outage in July presents important lessons for us to apply as an ecosystem,” Microsoft said.
It has already made many people question whether many organisations have adequate plans in place for when something as simple as an IT system or, worse still, a piece of software within it goes down.
“We look forward to bringing our perspective to the discussions with Microsoft and industry and government stakeholders on the need for a more resilient ecosystem,” a CrowdStrike spokesperson said when contacted for a comment.
Analysts have pointed out that this outage exposed the risk associated with depending on a single vendor for security solutions.
CrowdStrike lost about $9 billion of its market value since the outage and has been sued by shareholders who said the cybersecurity company defrauded them by concealing how its inadequate software testing could cause global disruption.
Earlier this month, Delta Air Lines said it had filed legal claims against CrowdStrike and Microsoft, alleging that the outage caused mass flight cancellations and at least $500 million in costs to the carrier.
CrowdStrike is scheduled to report its second-quarter financial results after the close of the US market on August 28.
