Microsoft outage leaves China largely untouched as tech self-sufficiency campaign pays off

[Nan Yang]

The Microsoft Windows recovery screen displayed at a currency exchange kiosk during a worldwide systems outage at Hong Kong International Airport on Friday. Photo: Edmond So

Microsoft outage leaves China largely untouched as tech self-sufficiency campaign pays off

• The Windows error that resulted in a bluescreen on computers became a hot topic on Chinese social media platforms

Wency Chen in Shanghai, Coco Feng in Beijing and Che Pan in Beijing
Published: 7:23pm, 19 Jul 2024

The Microsoft Windows outage that affected foreign businesses and luxury hotels in China on Friday left the country’s key infrastructure, from airlines to banks, largely unaffected, according to industry sources and social media posts.

As of 6pm local time, there have been no reports in mainland China of infrastructure breakdowns, while many airports in the Asia-Pacific region, from Hong Kong to Australia, were hit with disruptions. The international airports in Beijing and Shanghai were operating normally, according to their websites.

At the same time, the Windows error that resulted in a bluescreen on computers became a hot topic on Chinese social media platforms such as Weibo, as many foreign business offices across the country were affected by the breakdown.

Travelers queue at check-in counters for Hong Kong Express Airways at Hong Kong International Airport on Friday, after a worldwide systems outage. Photo: Bloomberg

A Shanghai-based staffer from a foreign company told the Post that her office started to experience computer crashes early Friday afternoon, and that almost everyone was affected. This employee’s laptop display was stuck on a blue screen with the message, “Recovery. It looks like Windows didn’t load correctly.”

The company’s information technology support then instructed everyone to shut down their computers, wait for further instructions and use mobile apps for instant messaging. The employee’s accounting work was subsequently delayed by the outage. “This month’s [financial] report will be late,” according to the staffer.

An employee from another foreign firm also reported experiencing blue screens around 1pm. While some of the employees could later restart their computers, they still could not access the company’s website, which displayed a “502 Bad Gateway” error. The company told staff that “global IT support has activated the highest level of response to address the issue”, according to the employee.

On Xiaohongshu, an Instagram-like Chinese social media platform, multiple users complained about the difficulty in checking into international franchise hotels such as Sheraton, Marriott and Hyatt in Chinese cities.

As China’s public services largely remained unaffected, Microsoft’s China website and social media channels did not issue any emergency notices. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

China’s relative immunity to the outage showed the country’s reduced reliance on foreign service providers such as Microsoft and the antivirus company CrowdStrike. In recent years, China has been rolling out a campaign across its government departments and key infrastructure operators to replace foreign hardware and systems with domestic ones.

The logo of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike on a smartphone, arranged in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, July 19, 2024. Photo: Bloomberg

The outages were caused by a software update from cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike, which hit Windows-based systems worldwide. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz confirmed on Friday morning local time via the social media platform X that his company was working to resolve the problem.

The minimal impact of the Microsoft outage in China has proved that the country has made progress in achieving its goal of “safe and controllable” computing systems, according to one Chinese government employee.

On Weibo, Chinese netizens joked that Microsoft “has given them a half-day off”. One commenter said that “our company just switched to new computers with the HarmonyOS system, so we can’t join in your celebration”.

 

[Nan Yang]

The CrowdStrike offices in Sunnyvale, California, on July 19, 2024. Photo: Bloomberg

CrowdStrike-Microsoft outage: Chinese cybersecurity firms take victory lap​

• 360 Security, QAX and Tencent all took swipes at CrowdStrike online after the American firm caused global Microsoft outages, wreaking havoc on businesses

Coco Feng in Beijing
Published: 6:00am, 21 Jul 2024


Chinese cybersecurity companies are taking advantage of the massive Microsoft Windows outage that upended businesses and grounded flights around the world on Thursday and Friday by promoting their own software, as Beijing pushes to cut the country’s reliance on foreign suppliers.

Austin, Texas-based cybersecurity company CrowdStrike caused the outage, one of the largest in history, by pushing a bad software update that crashed the Windows operating system. It affected airports, banks, and hospitals, among many other businesses.

360 Security Technology, China’s largest cybersecurity firm, took the opportunity to promote its products, which it claimed were “more reliable, stable, comprehensive and intelligent”.

“When selecting endpoint security software, it is important to fully evaluate its defence capabilities to avoid potential security risks and ensure that business continuity and data security are not threatened,” it said in a social media post on Friday.

Visitors tour the Chinese internet security firm Qihoo 360 booth at the World 5G Convention in Beijing on November 21, 2019. Photo: Xinhua

QAX, another well-known firm in the sector, wrote in a blog post on Friday that “software vendors involved in system stability need to have stricter quality control of their software”.

Tencent Holdings, which operates the Tencent PC Manager platform, said on Friday that it received reports from some users who experienced the Windows error screen, known as the blue screen of death. It referred users to CrowdStrike’s official workaround steps to resolve the problem.

The incident adds to Beijing’s list of reasons for seeking to move away from foreign technology as it pursues technological self-reliance in the face of mounting export restrictions and sanctions from Washington. Key infrastructure was largely unaffected in China, where only foreign businesses and luxury hotels were hit.

While Microsoft said on Friday that its systems had been restored, many businesses continued to deal with the fallout.

The Hong Kong International Airport, whose passenger check-in system collapsed, issued a notice on Saturday saying operations had returned to normal.

China’s cybersecurity market is dominated by local players. Beijing has long been phasing out software from companies like Russia’s Kaspersky Lab and US-based Symantec. CrowdStrike does not sell products and services in China, according to its website.

CrowdStrike shares fell 11.1 per cent to US$304.96 on the Nasdaq on Friday, while Microsoft edged down 0.74 per cent. Competitors SentinelOne and Palo Alto Networks gained 7.85 per cent and 2.16 per cent, respectively.

While China has pursued technological self-reliance to varying degrees for decades, the government’s mistrust of foreign commercial software deepened after the 2013 leaks from US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden revealed methods that the National Security Agency used to access information from some of the world’s biggest tech companies.

Airports across the world see operations disrupted as Microsoft systems outage hits globally

The government made a concerted push to completely switch to domestic security software a decade ago, according to a 2014 report by state-owned China News Service.

All the departments of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have installed 360 software, the report said, and state-owned enterprises would follow by also installing domestic alternatives.

CrowdStrike has made monitoring for Chinese cyberattacks an important part of its business, as Western countries have warned of an increasing number of attacks coming from China-linked actors.

In 2015, the company reported seven Chinese cyberattacks against US technology and pharmaceutical companies. China’s foreign affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at the time that “the Chinese government would not in any way participate, encourage or support enterprises in engaging in the theft of trade secrets”.

In its latest annual report, CrowdStrike said that “China-nexus adversaries increasingly targeted third-party relationships” in 2023.



Source:

CrowdStrike, Microsoft woes give Chinese cyber firms a chance to boast

360 Security, QAX and Tencent took swipes at CrowdStrike online after the American firm caused global Microsoft outages, wreaking havoc on businesses.

www.scmp.com