The censorship authorities in China have blocked access to HSBC’s corporate banking portal, HSBCnet, casting a large shadow over the the ability for both foreign and domestic companies to conduct day-to-day business inside the country.

What happened?

On October 23, 2014 users started to report that they had trouble accessing the online corporate banking service at global behemoth HSBC.

The bank itself was forced to add a note on its website acknowledging a problem:

Important Message: Customers logging in from China

Dear HSBCnet User

Please be advised that HSBCnet Users are currently experiencing problems when attempting to log into the system from within China. We are aware of this issue and are diligently working with local providers to deliver a prompt resolution.

This challenge resides outside the HSBCnet system and activity performed through our online banking platform remains secure.

For further assistance, please contact your local Customer Support Centre or HSBCnet contact in China.

Sincerely,

Your HSBCnet Team

This notice has since been removed (perhaps at the request of the censorship authorities). This disruption, a financial first for the great firewall (GFW), is a direct result of the censors trying to block access to global CDN Akamai. HSBC is an Akamai client (one of many banks); so is GreatFire.org.

The impact

Corporate executives should now understand that the great firewall and censorship in China are problems for businesses. Who would ever have thought that China, the second largest economy in the world, would block access to HSBC, the largest bank in the world?

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Companies need stable internet access to move funds in and out of China and executives should demand that the Chinese government guarantee this. Combined with the recent spate of MITM attacks in China, the reliability and security of online financial transactions has likely caused many sleepless nights for senior management.

Chinese and foreign executives should raise these issues with the authorities. Given the nature and construction of the global internet, human rights and activist websites cannot be isolated from financial and corporate ones. It is impossible for the authorities to deny that we are now truly living in a globally connected world. Corporate executives, if they wish to make further investments in China and overseas, should raise this matter with the authorities immediately, as it is likely that similar disruptions to online financial institutions are likely to occur in the future.

Akamai and HSBC - What’s the connection?

HSBC uses Akamai as part of the secure login system for clients. A simple check of the source code on the login page shows how Akamai is being used.

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HSBC uses an Akamai domain (https://a248.e.akamai.net) that is reserved for encrypted websites. Unlike the complete blocking of EdgeCast in China, this block only affects websites using this Akamai subdomain.

We believe that the authorities wanted to block access to mirror websites we are hosting with Akamai. Compared to the largest sites in China, the traffic to our sites is a small drop in a large bucket. Regardless, the authorities have decided that they are better served by plugging a small leak than allowing commerce to thrive.