<\/p>\n
In\u00a0Russia, Internet outages have become routine. Website crashes and service disruptions are nothing new, either. But the most serious incident came on\u00a0July 28, when Ukrainian and Belarusian hackers broke into<\/a> Aeroflot\u2019s\u00a0internal systems \u2014 delaying 150 flights, stranding at\u00a0least 20,000 passengers, and costing the airline more than 250 million rubles (over $3 million). And it\u00a0was far from the only disruption that month. Some appeared to\u00a0be\u00a0the result of\u00a0cyberattacks, others possibly linked to\u00a0state-imposed blocks. In\u00a0many cases, the cause remains unclear. Meduza takes a\u00a0look back at\u00a0all of\u00a0the services that broke across the Russian Internet over the past month.<\/p>\n Retail<\/strong><\/p>\n VkusVill grocery chain.<\/strong> On\u00a0July 30, VkusVill\u2019s\u00a0online store went down<\/a>. The company emphasized that this was not a\u00a0hacker attack. The issue was resolved about four hours later.<\/p>\n Dobrotsen discount stores.<\/strong> On\u00a0July 30, the company\u2019s\u00a0website stopped<\/a> working. Dobrotsen described<\/a> the incident as\u00a0an\u00a0\u201cinternal failure.\u201d However, according to<\/a> the Telegram channel Mash, it\u00a0was a\u00a0hacker attack that took down the website and disrupted operations at\u00a0the company\u2019s\u00a0warehouses and offices.<\/p>\n Evotor online point-of-sale service.<\/strong> On\u00a0the morning of\u00a0July 30, users across multiple regions in\u00a0Russia began reporting<\/a> that Evotor\u2019s\u00a0website and mobile app were down, with widespread issues placing orders and processing payments. The company blamed the outage on\u00a0a\u00a0problem with its provider but gave no\u00a0estimated timeline for resolution. Another wave of\u00a0user complaints followed<\/a> on\u00a0the morning of\u00a0July 31.<\/p>\n Vinlab alcohol retailers.<\/strong> All Vinlab stores shut down<\/a> on\u00a0July 14 and only began reopening on\u00a0July 22. The chain\u2019s\u00a0parent company, Novabev Group, said it\u00a0had been targeted by\u00a0an\u00a0\u201cunprecedented cyberattack\u201d after refusing to\u00a0pay a\u00a0ransom. According to\u00a0estimates<\/a> from experts, the shutdown cost Novabev Group more than 1 billion rubles (over $12 million) in\u00a0losses.<\/p>\n Restaurants and delivery<\/strong><\/p>\n Rostic\u2019s\u00a0(formerly KFC).<\/strong> On\u00a0July 30\u201331, online ordering and self-service kiosks were down<\/a>. According to\u00a0posts from Rostic\u2019s\u00a0on\u00a0social media, restoring service took at\u00a0least<\/a> 13 hours<\/a>. The company did not disclose the cause of\u00a0the outage.<\/p>\n Samokat delivery service.<\/strong> The service also went down<\/a> on\u00a0July 30, around the same time as\u00a0VkusVill, but resumed operations relatively quickly \u2014 though not<\/a> for all users. No\u00a0explanation was provided.<\/p>\n Vkusno i\u00a0tochka (formerly McDonald\u2019s).<\/strong> On\u00a0July 18, the chain announced<\/a> that its mobile app was unavailable due to\u00a0a\u00a0\u201cprovider failure.\u201d<\/p>\n iiko restaurant automation service.<\/strong> According to<\/a> the company, its servers were hit by\u00a0\u201cunprecedented DDoS attacks\u201d beginning July 18, which it\u00a0was only able to\u00a0repel on\u00a0July 22.<\/p>\n Clinics and pharmacies<\/strong><\/p>\n Stolichki and Neopharm pharmacies.<\/strong> On\u00a0July 29, internal systems at\u00a0Stolichki began<\/a> to\u00a0malfunction, forcing some locations to\u00a0close. Neopharm pharmacies \u2014 part of\u00a0the same holding company \u2014 also experienced shutdowns. Both<\/a> chains<\/a> reported being targeted by\u00a0hackers and have yet to\u00a0confirm full recovery.<\/p>\n Semeiny Doktor clinics.<\/strong> On\u00a0July 29, the clinic network\u2019s\u00a0website stopped<\/a> allowing users to\u00a0book appointments or\u00a0access their personal accounts. The parent company said<\/a> Semeiny Doktor had been targeted in\u00a0a\u00a0hacker attack, but claimed no\u00a0patient data had been leaked.<\/p>\n Medsi clinics.<\/strong> Russia\u2019s\u00a0largest private clinic network reported<\/a> technical problems on\u00a0July 7. According to\u00a0Medsi, the outage lasted less than an\u00a0hour. The Telegram channel Shot reported<\/a> that the disruption forced many Medsi locations to\u00a0stop patient intake, at\u00a0least in\u00a0Moscow.<\/p>\n Transportation and communications<\/strong><\/p>\n AirNet provider.<\/strong> The\u00a0St. Petersburg\u2013based Internet provider reported<\/a> on\u00a0July 30 that its servers had come under a\u00a0DDoS attack carried out by\u00a0Ukrainian hackers from the IT\u00a0Army of\u00a0Ukraine.<\/p>\n Aeroflot airline.<\/strong> The internal systems of\u00a0Russia\u2019s\u00a0largest airline stopped working on\u00a0the morning of\u00a0July 28. Hacker groups from Belarus and Ukraine claimed<\/a> responsibility.<\/p>\n A \u2018zoo\u2019 of\u00a0IT\u00a0infrastructure How Aeroflot\u2019s\u00a0slow-moving transition to\u00a0Russian-made software left it\u00a0wide open to\u00a0hackers<\/a>A \u2018zoo\u2019 of\u00a0IT\u00a0infrastructure How Aeroflot\u2019s\u00a0slow-moving transition to\u00a0Russian-made software left it\u00a0wide open to\u00a0hackers<\/a><\/p>\n MTS and other telecom providers.<\/strong> On\u00a0July 4, users reported<\/a> Internet access issues affecting several major Russian telecom operators. Most complaints concerned\u00a0MTS. The company did not explain the cause of\u00a0the outage.<\/p>\n Banking<\/strong><\/p>\n T-Bank (formerly Tinkoff).<\/strong> Users reported<\/a> service disruptions on\u00a0July 29, with over 1,500 complaints at\u00a0one point. T-Bank acknowledged that \u201csome customers may have experienced difficulties,\u201d but did not specify the reason.<\/p>\n Alfa-Bank.<\/strong> Some users also reported<\/a> issues with Alfa-Bank on\u00a0July 29, although far fewer than with T-Bank. According to\u00a0complaints posted on\u00a0Downdetector, users also had trouble accessing Alfa-Bank services on\u00a0July 24, though the bank said at\u00a0the time that there were no\u00a0outages.<\/p>\n Government services<\/strong><\/p>\n Russian Post.<\/strong> Customers reported<\/a> service issues on\u00a0July 29. The state postal service denied<\/a> the reports, stating: \u201cDon\u2019t panic \u2014 all Russian Post systems are operating normally! Website, mobile app \u2014 everything is\u00a0reliable, secure, and under control.\u201d<\/p>\n Gosuslugi government services portal.<\/strong> On\u00a0July 28, users in\u00a0several Russian regions were unable<\/a> to\u00a0access their personal accounts. Roskomnadzor said<\/a> it\u00a0had not recorded any DDoS attacks on\u00a0the portal. The cause of\u00a0the outage remains unclear.<\/p>\n Rosstat.<\/strong> The federal statistics agency\u2019s\u00a0website went offline<\/a> on\u00a0July 16 and was down for several days. On\u00a0July 21, Rosstat announced<\/a> that the site was back online \u2014 though only partially.<\/p>\n The Central Bank\u2019s\u00a0Faster Payments System.<\/strong> The system temporarily<\/a> stopped working on\u00a0July 10. Its operator attributed the outage to\u00a0\u201can\u00a0incident on\u00a0the provider\u2019s\u00a0side.\u201d That same day, users also reported<\/a> access issues at\u00a0Alfa-Bank, Ozon Bank, Yandex Bank, VTB, and Bank Saint Petersburg.<\/p>\n Social media and messaging apps<\/strong><\/p>\n Telegram and WhatsApp.<\/strong> In\u00a0the first week of\u00a0July, Russian users noticed<\/a> at\u00a0least four instances when the country\u2019s\u00a0two most popular messaging apps went down simultaneously. Experts suggested Roskomnadzor may have been testing a\u00a0possible block. Shortly afterward, the Russian authorities officially announced<\/a> plans to\u00a0block WhatsApp.<\/p>\n VKontakte.<\/strong> On\u00a0July 3, users in\u00a0Russia and abroad began reporting<\/a> problems accessing the social network. Service was restored within a\u00a0few hours. VKontakte did not explain the cause of\u00a0the outage.<\/p>\n We\u00a0usually do\u00a0the talking at\u00a0fundraisers<\/a>. This time, we\u2019ll\u00a0let our readers speak for us.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cFor years, Meduza\u2019s\u00a0been one of\u00a0the only news outlets keeping me\u00a0from going nuts. I\u2019m\u00a0still in\u00a0Russia, still holding it\u00a0together, but just barely. I\u00a0know I\u2019m\u00a0not the only\u00a0one. So, please show some love for Meduza and\u00a0help<\/a>\u00a0keep us\u00a0from going cuckoo!\u201d \u2014 Lyu<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In\u00a0Russia, Internet outages have become routine. Website crashes and service disruptions are nothing new, either. But the most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3161],"tags":[3082,53,16,15,7888,7883,7886,7875,7868,7880,7870,7881,7887,7876,7864,7871,7865,7873,7874,7866,7869,7867,7885,7879,7872,7884,7882,7878,7877],"class_list":{"0":"post-312975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-internet","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-7888","13":"tag-7883","14":"tag-7886","15":"tag-7875","16":"tag-7868","17":"tag-7880","18":"tag-7870","19":"tag-7881","20":"tag-7887","21":"tag-7876","22":"tag-7864","23":"tag-7871","24":"tag-7865","25":"tag-7873","26":"tag-7874","27":"tag-7866","28":"tag-7869","29":"tag-7867","30":"tag-7885","31":"tag-7879","32":"tag-7872","33":"tag-7884","34":"tag-7882","35":"tag-7878","36":"tag-7877"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114961475580788586","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}