As an insurance executive, you understand the importance of resilience and security in protecting your clients' assets. But what about your own company’s assets? The recent CrowdStrike outage, which caused 8.5 million PCs to go offline due to a buggy update, highlights the need for improvements in Windows resilience and security. In this blog post, we’ll explore how you can improve your company’s security by following Microsoft’s lead in making Windows more resilient.

According to a blog post by John Cable, Vice President of Program Management for Windows Servicing and Delivery, Windows must prioritize change and innovation in the area of end-to-end resilience. This means closer cooperation between Microsoft and its partners, including insurance companies, to make security improvements. Here are five steps you can take to improve your company’s security:

1. Stay up-to-date with the latest security innovations. Microsoft has recently introduced a new VBS enclaves feature that does not require kernel mode drivers to be tamper-resistant. Additionally, Microsoft’s Azure Attestation service is another example of recent security innovations. By staying informed about these developments, you can ensure that your company is using the latest security measures.

2. Encourage development practices that do not rely on kernel access. As Cable notes, modern Zero Trust approaches can be used to encourage development practices that do not rely on kernel access. By adopting these practices, you can reduce the risk of a buggy update taking down your company’s PCs.

3. Consider using parametric insurance. Parametric insurance uses real-time data to trigger payouts when specific events occur. This type of insurance can be particularly useful in situations where a large number of PCs are affected by a single event, such as a buggy update. Riskwolf is a company that specializes in turning real-time data into insurance, enabling insurers to build and operate parametric insurance at scale.

4. Work collaboratively with the security community. As Cable notes, Microsoft will continue to work openly and collaboratively with the broad security community to improve the resiliency of the Windows ecosystem. By working with other insurance companies and security vendors, you can share best practices and learn from each other’s experiences.

5. Contact Riskwolf to develop parametric insurance for your company. With Riskwolf, you can turn real-time data into insurance. Using unique real-time data and dynamic risk modeling, Riskwolf enables insurers to build and operate parametric insurance at scale. Simple. Reliable. Fast.

In conclusion, the recent CrowdStrike outage highlights the need for improvements in Windows resilience and security. By following Microsoft’s lead and staying up-to-date with the latest security innovations, encouraging development practices that do not rely on kernel access, considering parametric insurance, working collaboratively with the security community, and contacting Riskwolf to develop parametric insurance for your company, you can improve your company’s security and protect your clients' assets. For more information on the CrowdStrike outage, read the original article by Tom Warren on The Verge.