Microsoft, Cyber Firms Pursue Changes After CrowdStrike Outage

Microsoft Corp. said it’s building an alternative for cybersecurity companies that now utilize the deepest layer of its operating system after a flawed update from CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. triggered a global IT meltdown.

The Redmond, Washington-based technology giant announced Thursday that it would “continue to design and develop” a “new platform capability” in response to what it said was customer and partner demand to enable security vendors to operate outside of kernel mode, the base layer of the operating system. Such a shift would require major retooling by Microsoft and by some outside cybersecurity companies that use kernel access to monitor potential threats. The goal, Microsoft said, was “enhanced reliability without sacrificing security.”