We were not alone: amidst the huge Microsoft outage last Friday where so many businesses and industries were affected, it turns out that casinos in Asia were also greatly impacted. Macau and Manila were dealt with heavy blows as the cybersecurity meltdown went on.

Last Friday's disastrous cyberspace outage sent shockwaves through various industries worldwide, grounding travel and bringing many businesses to an unexpected halt. The significant cybersecurity meltdown also dealt a losing hand to several integrated resort casinos in Asia, including major gaming hubs like Macau, China, and Manila, Philippines.

Widespread casino impacts

Gaming venues in Macau and Manila reported severe issues linked to a recent CrowdStrike software update. The outage, which disrupted operations not only in the United States but also in Canada, Europe, Australia, and Asia, also led to operational deficiencies among a minimum of three of Macau's six casino operators. The Judiciary Police in Macau confirmed on Monday that the Information Technology systems of three casino enterprises were affected, although they did not disclose the names of the companies involved.

Officials in Macau were quick to state that its Cybersecurity Incident Alert and Response Center is continuously monitoring the situation, even now. "Based on the information collected so far, the impact of this global cybersecurity incident on Macau is relatively limited and controlled," read a police statement.

But unlike the United States, where numerous casino resorts, especially those on the world-famous Las Vegas Strip, described issues with the check-ins of guests and some operations malfunctioning, Macau's problems were confined to operations at the back-of-the-house. Consequently, casino guests in Macau did not notice any significant disruptions from the glitch.

The global ripple effect

The three affected casino firms in Macau said to local law enforcement that their internal computer systems malfunctioned due to the Microsoft outage. There was, however, no visible impact to casino operations. These companies operate a significant number of resorts and gaming venues across the region.

Meanwhile, the Solaire Resort & Casino in Manila's Entertainment City related extensive impacts to the casino floor. According to local reports, many of the casino's slot machines showed blue error screens (the so-called Blue Screen of Death) throughout the weekend. Solaire, owned and managed by Bloomberry Resorts, recently opened Solaire North, a $1 billion integrated resort casino about an hour's drive from Entertainment City. Notably, there were no reports that the Microsoft situation also affected Solaire North.

Blame the updates

The root cause of the widespread issues was a cybersecurity update released by CrowdStrike on July 18. This update caused the global Microsoft outage, impacting millions of networks and computers running on the Microsoft Windows OS. CrowdStrike, responsible for the security of numerous business network services and Windows PCs worldwide, said that it quickly "identified and isolated" the glitch, subsequently deploying a fix. While most affected systems and operations have since returned to normal, there are said to be still ongoing problems with Delta Airlines.

The Microsoft outage didn't just disrupt casino and resort operations, as we all know - it also took down websites, interrupted television broadcasts, and resulted in the grounding of thousands of flights. Microsoft commented on the incident, highlighting the interconnected nature of the tech ecosystem. "This incident demonstrates the interconnected nature of our broad ecosystem - global cloud providers, software platforms, security vendors and other software vendors, and customers." It noted that the incident is also a reminder of how important it is for all tech ecosystem providers to prioritize operating with safe deployment and disaster recovery using all the mechanisms that exist.

Moving forward from the outage

The incident has accentuated the critical importance of robust cybersecurity measures and disaster recovery plans. Businesses globally are being reminded of the importance of prioritizing safe deployments and having contingencies in place for such widespread technical failures. But the rapid response by CrowdStrike and the subsequent restoration of most systems serve to showcase the industry's ability to address and mitigate cybersecurity threats as swiftly as possible.

As global travel and various business operations gradually return to the way it was, the incident serves as a crucial lesson for companies and governments worldwide. The reliance on interconnected systems and networks necessitates constant vigilance and preparedness to ensure such disruptions are minimized and managed effectively in the future.