Alipay and Ctrip outages: the crisis behind Internet convenience

From the afternoon to the night of May 27, many users found that they could not log in to their Alipay accounts. This caused panic and speculation. In the early morning of May 28, Alipay officially responded: "Due to the construction of municipal roads in Hangzhou, the network optical cable was dug up, which caused some users to be unable to use Alipay normally for a short period of time this afternoon. We deeply apologize for this. Thank you very much for your understanding! Sorry for the trouble."

Alipay also stated that it will promote technological upgrades and continue to improve the multi-site active system architecture. Even if unexpected situations such as optical cables being dug up occur again in the future, users will be minimized or even unaware of the situation when switching to another location.

Just when everyone was breathing a sigh of relief, another Ctrip user discovered this morning that there was a problem with the data in the Ctrip APP.

Ctrip said that some servers were attacked by unknown means, causing the official website and APP to be temporarily unavailable for normal use. Emergency recovery is currently underway, but a specific system recovery time cannot be given at this time.

With the development of the Internet and mobile Internet in recent years, each of us has truly felt the convenient and fast Internet services. However, what happened in the past two days tells us that behind the convenience is a dark crisis.

1. Inseparable Internet Life

May 27th is the day when some of my income is deposited and my credit card debt is paid off. I check my Alipay bill to see my water, coal and electricity bills, my credit card repayments and the income from my financial management account. Alipay is a quick and convenient way to do this.

A construction project thousands of miles away can interrupt everything. Your privacy aside, the balance in Alipay and Yu'ebao is real money. If there is a problem with the network or Ali's server has some trouble, your money will become a mess, which is terrible.

Similarly, many people now rely on Ctrip to book their trips. Especially after Ctrip invested in Yidao Car Rental, travel services are almost one-stop, from booking air tickets, taking the departure vehicle to the airport, to the vehicle picking up the hotel in the other city, to hotel accommodation, return air tickets, and vehicle pick-up.

Because Ctrip can provide packaged invoices for all kinds of consumption during the whole trip, many business travelers like to use Ctrip's services to solve their travel problems. However, when Ctrip has problems, many guests who have booked their trips will encounter various problems. Because of network or server problems, tickets are not issued, vehicles are not booked, hotels are not booked, or time is delayed, and travelers will encounter big troubles.

Our lives are closely connected with the Internet and mobile Internet. The Internet is as indispensable as air. Internet companies with industry dominance are as important to individuals as state-owned enterprises such as banks and telecommunications that are related to the national economy and people's livelihood. If they have problems, it will become a major social problem.

2. Neglected Social Responsibility

In fact, banks are a bit like Internet companies, both of which provide information services and are related to important information of everyone in society. However, banks have internal networks.

Financial institutions usually use dedicated line services provided by telecom companies, and have sufficient backup lines that are isolated from the Internet used by everyone. Banks' business networks are also not connected to the Internet.

In terms of data backup, financial institutions have strict systems and off-site backup plans to deal with various disasters and are very vigilant about security.

Internet companies do not have the strong position of state-owned enterprises. Their platforms are built on the commercial networks provided by telecom operators, and they are connected to the Internet, with more consideration for commercial operations.

When a company grows to a certain size, it no longer represents the interests of shareholders or employees, but the interests of the whole society, and its safety issues become a problem for the whole society. However, the society does not help these companies to assume their social responsibilities.

We know that airlines have strict industry standards, because a problem with the plane means the lives of hundreds of people. Although airlines operate commercially, there are various agencies that manage, supervise and inspect them to ensure that the airlines can assume their social responsibilities.

As Internet companies have developed to this point, they have actually assumed heavy social responsibilities. If Alibaba encounters problems, the personal accounts of all Alibaba customers will become a mess, and the consequences will not be something that Alibaba or Jack Ma can bear. This requires the government and the industry to help companies like Alibaba establish a sufficiently strong risk prevention and disaster response system to protect the interests of the entire society.

Without such a system, everyone in the Internet industry will be in a black crisis. Maybe everything seems normal and convenient now, but once a problem occurs, the whole society will pay the price.

3. Be prepared to avoid trouble

In fact, the state has long provided guidance on information security for financial sectors such as banks, securities, and insurance. In 2007, the State Security Bureau, the National Cryptography Administration, and the State Council Information Office made clear provisions on information security levels, stipulated methods for assessment and supervision, and required the classification of various risks and the formulation of emergency plans.

There are many rumors about the Ctrip incident. Some say it was an external attack, and some say it was revenge from former employees. But no matter which one it is, Ctrip did not make a contingency plan for the attack or switch to backup immediately.

If it was a resigned employee who retaliated, then it means that there are serious problems with Ctrip's internal management and division of authority. The authority held by a single employee should not cause major losses, let alone a resigned employee.

Alibaba's case was simpler, as the external lines were cut off, and the disaster level was very minor. There was no immediate response to this risk, but if a catastrophic event like the Wenchuan incident occurred, the Alipay accounts of the entire nation would probably be in tatters.

In fact, for Internet companies with a certain status that are involved in the real economy, their information security should be managed in the same way as financial companies and directly intervened by state agencies, so as to avoid potential major crises.

As individual consumers, we should be aware of the information security crisis in the Internet age. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Prepare multiple channels. If the Internet channel is temporarily interrupted, there are other channels available. This can also be regarded as a personal emergency plan.

I hope that while the Internet brings us convenience, it will no longer bring us this kind of dark crisis.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.