Editor’s note: Check out our oft-updated live blog for all new developments about the Microsoft/CrowdStrike outage.
The recent global IT outage, in which a faulty update to cybersecurity company CrowdStrike’s software brought down millions of Windows PCs, caused billions of dollars worth of damage across a number of industries, including airline transport, retail, and banking.
Mac devices, however, were not affected, as Apple’s macOS operating system does not grant third party app makers kernel-level access, preventing the type of catastrophic error that resulted in the dreaded « blue screen of death » on Windows PCs.
Now, Microsoft is saying it wasn’t able to put the same protections in place due to a long-standing agreement with the European Commission.
In a statement given to the Wall Street Journal, a Microsoft spokesperson said the company « cannot legally wall off its operating system in the same way Apple does because of an understanding it reached with the European Commission following a complaint. »
This is referring to a 2009 agreement, in which Microsoft pledged to give third-party security apps developers the same level of access to its Windows OS as Microsoft itself gets. In contrast, Apple took away kernel access from third-party developers back in 2019, when it launched macOS Catalina.
The faulty CrowdStrike update was devastating for IT systems around the globe as it caused a system crash on a multitude of Windows PCs. A fix could not easily be deployed as the systems would immediately crash again on reboot, causing a condition called « reboot loop. »
In a letter to customers and partners, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said it was taking steps to prevent « anything like this from happening again. » The question, however, is what steps should Microsoft take to make sure one small update to a third-party software (CrowdStrike’s or others’) cannot wreak havoc on global IT infrastructure again.
We’ve asked Microsoft for comment on this issue, and will update this article when we hear back.
