Microsoft has announced that it will be hosting a major security event where it will reveal more about the recent CrowdStrike outage – but only to a select audience
The company will be co-exhibiting with CrowdStrike at the Windows Endpoint Security Ecosystem Summit, taking place September 10 at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond.
During the event, the two companies will speak openly together for the first time about the outage, which took millions of devices offline and caused chaos for organizations around the world.
Microsoft Security Event
The event will also bring together “key partners delivering endpoint security technologies” for “discussions on improving resilience and protecting our joint customers’ critical infrastructure,” said Aidan Marcuss, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Windows and Devices, said in her official announcement.
“Our goal is to discuss concrete steps we will all take to improve the safety and resilience of our collective customers.”
Microsoft says that government representatives will be invited, in addition to other tech companies. However, it appears that the content of the event will remain secret. Marcuss has said that the company will not share any updates on the discussions until after the event.
Marcuss added that the CrowdStrike outage provided “important lessons” for Microsoft to apply as an ecosystem. Discussions will focus on “improving security and secure deployment practices, designing resilient systems, and working together as a thriving community of partners to best serve customers now and in the future.”
The event will be closely watched around the world, as there are still a number of questions that need to be answered following the July 2024 outage. At the top of the list are precise details about how the outage was able to affect so many devices around the world, and what the two companies plan to do to ensure such an incident never happens again.
There is also interest in exactly how many devices were affected, after Microsoft backtracked on its initial estimate, and what the company is doing to reduce its reliance on individual security vendors.