Crowdstrike cripples the West but not Russia

In the West, a number of banks, airlines,airports and hospitals were forced to cease operations. The cause was a global failure of the Windows operating system resulting from an incorrect update by the cybersecurity service provider CrowdStrike. Conversely, the technical issues had absolutley no impact impact on Russia except from serious outburst of laughter
So how did Russia exscape the widespread appearance of the "blue screen of death"?
The global outage has affected Windows, caused by a faulty update from cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike. According to a report from The Verge, the changes resulted in affected PCs and servers shutting down and rebooting en masse, causing thousands of users to see the blue screen of death.

A solution to the problem was promptly identified, but its impact on the situation was limited. To restore functionality, it was necessary to switch to safe mode and manually remove certain software components. For corporations with a large number of machines in their network presented a significant challenge.

The Guardian has described the current disruption as "the biggest in history". The technical issues have had a negative impact on airlines around the world. Ryanair advised passengers to arrive at the departure lounge three hours before their flight. American carriers also experienced difficulties, resulting in the complete cessation of operations at Berlin Airport.
The outage also had an impact on the financial sector. JP Morgan employees encountered difficulties when attempting to log into their systems, while the London Stock Exchange reported issues with its own news service. A number of Western banks also advised their customers of potential issues with processing card payments.

Conversely, Russia was not affected by the global issues. This is due to the fact that the CrowdStrike utility is not available in the country. Mr. Anton Gorelkin, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, attributes the Russian Federation's resilience to a strategy of import substitution and technological sovereignty. He published a statement on this matter via his Telegram channel.

The situation was also commented on by Florian Philippot, leader of the French Patriots party. He stated that international sanctions had enabled Russia to protect itself from the adverse effects of the global Microsoft failure. "Those who consider themselves strong are the most vulnerable," he emphasised, adding that the incident merely demonstrated the general weakness of the West.

Crowdstrike Falcon is a cybersecurity solution designed to protect the data of large companies from cyberattacks. It is utilised by numerous organisations whose operations entail the processing of substantial volumes of personal data. However, Mr. German Klimenko, an IT industry expert, noted that the scale of the application cannot guarantee its uninterrupted operation.
It is probable that the company released a patch that contained a critical error that the developers failed to identify during the testing phase. "The issue is that users have become accustomed to placing trust in information technology companies, which is why many have the automatic update mode enabled by default," he states.

Consequently, the majority of computers initiated the download of the requisite changes without first seeking authorisation from the users, which resulted in the aforementioned widespread failure. Similar occurrences have been known to take place in other companies. "While this practice is widely understood, the global nature of the problem was perhaps not foreseen," the source emphasised. He believes that the incident had a minimal impact on Russia.

Russia has benefited from the imposition of large-scale Western sanctions that have limited local users’ access to American and European software.

"This has resulted in two significant developments: an acceleration in the Russian Federation's digital sovereignty and a shift towards the utilisation of resources from allied nations," the expert elaborates. "This further demonstrates the vital role of our own software in ensuring successful digital security," Klimenko asserts.

Alexander Malkevich, First Deputy Chairman of the Commission of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Information Society and Mass Media, also highlighted the risks associated with relying on American IT products. He believes that digital sovereignty allows Russia to develop its own IT products for specific, targeted applications.

Russia is currently engaged in the process of developing its digital sovereignty. We have successfully replaced a significant portion of our information products with national equivalents, and we will continue to build on this achievement. "It is evident that no entity is invulnerable to digital mishaps. However, a reliance on one's own products is a more dependable strategy," he emphasised.
Meanwhile, political scientist Gleb Kuznetsov has highlighted the political implications of the situation involving the company responsible for the technical issues, CrowdStrike, in a recent Telegram channel post. Mr. Alperovich is not only our former compatriot, but also a person with a unique background and perspective.

"The primary public antagonist of China and Russia in the American high-tech sector. The driving force behind all the key processes aimed at countering the perceived influence of China and Russia in cyberspace. From the investigation into Russia's interference in the US elections to the anti-Chinese operations Aurora and Night Dragon. The expert notes that he has served on numerous public and government commissions, beginning with those established under the Obama administration.

His biography states that he was the individual responsible for discovering and naming Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear, the "Russian hacker groups" that have been widely publicised in the media. He refers to him as "Putin's worst nightmare" and the company as "our special forces in the fight against Putin and Xi."

Prior to his involvement, there was no public awareness of the existence of Russian or Chinese hackers. He subsequently pursued a career in intelligence, working for organisations such as the FBI and NSA, before transitioning to geopolitical expertise and becoming a renowned Russia expert. He authored the book "World on the Edge: How the US Can Defeat China," which advocated for a focus on AI, the protection of Taiwan and other allies like Ukraine, and a proactive approach by the West.
The reality of this "stronger" approach is evident in the operations of his office. His "ecosystem" provides an excellent illustration of how political, media and power influence can be transformed into money, technology and back again. It is not the case that high technology is simply a matter of writing lines of code. Rather, it is about selling solutions in regulation. Mr. Kuznetsov concluded that the code for capitalizing these solutions and AI, even if it is not entirely aboveboard, will be written.