Russia claims it was unaffected by the global IT systems outage

Russian officials have claimed that Moscow was largely unaffected by a global IT systems outage, attributing this to the country’s increased self-sufficiency due to Western sanctions. These sanctions, imposed over Russia’s war in Ukraine, have led companies like Microsoft to suspend new product sales and scale down operations in Russia.

The outage, caused by CrowdStrike’s ‘Falcon Sensor’ software, did not impact Russian systems, as local cybersecurity firms like Kaspersky Labs dominate the market. The Kremlin, along with major companies such as Rosatom and leading banks, reported no disruptions.

Financial and currency markets in Russia also remained stable. Preparations for potential disconnections from foreign software due to sanctions have been ongoing, with significant investments in domestically developed software. VTB, Russia’s second-largest lender, plans to increase its use of local software to 95% by the end of the year.

However, IT experts caution that the risks of insufficiently tested software updates are universal. Eldar Murtazin, an IT expert, noted that while Russian software performed well during the current incident, future glitches remain a possibility if proper controls are not maintained.