According to media reports, the outage was caused by a faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. The update disconnected computers and servers from the network, pushing them into a recovery cycle that kept the machines from booting appropriately.
Numerous corporations were affected, including several airlines worldwide. American carriers United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines released a worldwide ground stop on all flights because of communication problems. Other affected carriers included India's IndiGo, Lufthansa of Germany and Jetstar Japan. (Related: UK experiences nationwide airport system outage, unleashing travel chaos.)
But Russian infrastructure wasn't affected by the glitch, a point stressed by its airports, airlines and aviation authorities.
"Russian airlines long ago switched to a domestic booking system, and the global Microsoft outage did not affect them," Russian carrier Red Wings said in a statement. The Moscow Domodedovo Airport was not affected by the massive IT failure and provided the Astra check-in system – which is fully Russian – as a backup to its foreign partners.
The Russian Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media (MTR) said on July 19 that airlines and banks in the country had shown no signs of being affected by the outage. According to the ministry, Moscow's action against Western sanctions had saved it from the digital failure.
"The situation with Microsoft once again shows the importance of import substitution of foreign software, primarily at critical information infrastructure facilities," the MTR said.
Western sanctions came with a silver lining for Russia
Rosaviatsia, Russia's federal aviation authority, also confirmed that no domestic airline had been impacted by the outage. The Kremlin also remarked its computer systems were working "seamlessly" and had not been affected.
Russian financial markets also apparently ran without difficulty on July 19, according to Reuters. An unnamed currency trader told the outlet: "Everyone has long been preparing for the possibility of being cut off from Microsoft due to sanctions."
"The current incident is a test of how well we have prepared. So far, everything is fine, at least for the major players, and generally, there is no panic in the market."
According to the Moscow Times, Russia has worked to replace imports of foreign goods in essential sectors since relations with the West started deteriorating during the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the war in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. After Russia initiated its all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Microsoft and other tech companies suspended the latest sales in Russia and tapered off their operations to conform to Western sanctions.
The Russian cybersecurity market is now dominated by local firms such as Kaspersky Labs, according to Reuters. As for CrowdStrike, the company whose security update purportedly caused the outage, its absence in Russia was a silver lining for the country. Mikhail Klimarev from the non-governmental Internet Protection Society said: "CrowdStrike has not provided any services in Russia, since February 2022 for sure."
Nonetheless, IT expert Eldar Murtazin mentioned that "such issues can happen to any software, whether Russian or non-Russian," if the proper controls aren't in place.
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