Russian officials claimed on Friday that Moscow avoided the effects of the Russia IT outage due to increased self-sufficiency. They attributed this resilience to years of Western sanctions. However, some experts warned that Russian systems might still be vulnerable despite the Russia IT outage. #RussiaITOutage
Microsoft and other IT firms have suspended new product sales in Russia. They are also scaling down operations due to sanctions from Russia’s war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a special military operation.
CrowdStrike’s “Falcon Sensor” software, which caused Microsoft Windows to crash, had no known customers in Russia. Instead, the Russian market is dominated by local cybersecurity firms like Kaspersky Labs.
“CrowdStrike has not provided any services in Russia, since February 2022 for sure,” Mikhail Klimarev from the non-governmental Internet Protection Society told Reuters.
The Kremlin and major companies, including state nuclear giant Rosatom and major lenders, reported no glitches during the outage. Despite the global impact, Russian airlines and other firms also remained unaffected. #RussiaITOutage
Russian financial and currency markets also ran smoothly.
“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,” one currency trader, who wished to remain anonymous, told Reuters.
