Up to 8.5 million Windows devices were affected by Friday's IT outage after Crowdstrike's antivirus update went awry.

cross-posted from: https://awful.systems/post/1965658

Kind of sharing this because the headline is a little sensationalist and makes it sound like MS is hard right (they are, but not like this) and anti-EU.

I mean, they probably are! Especially if it means MS is barred from monopolies and vertical integration.

  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    1•5 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    A 2009 agreement insisted on by the European Commission meant that Microsoft could not make security changes that would have blocked the update from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike that caused an estimated 8.5 million computers to fail, the Big Tech giant said in comments to the Wall Street Journal newspaper.

    Thousands of flights were delayed or cancelled, leaving passengers stranded at airports worldwide, the UK’s NHS service was affected and contactless payments failed to work.

    Microsoft has Windows Defender, its in-house alternative to CrowdStrike, but because of the 2009 agreement made to avoid a European competition investigation, had allowed multiple security providers to install software at the kernel level.

    Microsoft’s main competitor, Apple, in 2020 blocked access to the kernel on its Mac computers, arguing it would improve security and reliability.

    Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, a Microsoft spokesman said the company could not make a similar change because of the EU agreement.

    Under its new Digital Markets Act, Europe is currently trying to force Apple to give access to its iPhone to allow alternative app stores and web browsers to be used.

    The original article contains 348 words, the summary contains 183 words. Saved 47%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!