Last Friday, the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, whose technology is used by major banks, healthcare, and energy companies worldwide, was the protagonist of a serious global computer crisis after the release of a software update that included a serious flaw. While this problem affected much of the world, China hardly noticed it. What could have caused this anomaly?
According to Gao Feng, senior research director at consulting firm Gartner, the impact of the CrowdStrike incident in China was very small, with almost no repercussions on national public life. Gao explained in a statement to CNBC that the main reason is that Chinese companies do not use CrowdStrike products, as the clients of this company are mainly concentrated in Europe and the United States.
On Friday, transportation systems, e-commerce, and other internet-connected services in China operated smoothly. Chinese state media reported that international flights at the two airports in Beijing were operating normally and that airlines such as Air China, China Eastern Airlines, and China Southern Airlines were not affected by technical failures.
One of the most prominent issues of the computer blackout, even in China, occurred with Microsoft Windows devices that were trying to integrate a product update of CrowdStrike Falcon, causing a blue screen of death and a reboot loop. Windows is a widely used operating system in China, being present in 87% of the country’s personal computers last year.
The hashtag “Thank you, Microsoft, I can go home early” became a trend on the social network Weibo when power outages intensified on Friday afternoon, with posts showing the “blue screen of death” or talking about this global interruption. However, the popularity of the hashtag was soon surpassed by other national interest topics, including the launch of a Xiaomi product in Beijing that same night.
Rich Bishop, CEO of AppInChina, pointed out that the impact was limited because CrowdStrike is barely used in China. Bishop mentioned that this is because many security threats that CrowdStrike protects against come from China, and Chinese companies prefer to use products from Tencent, 360, and other domestic companies.
