Drone attacks hit Russian Yandex data centers
Three data centers of the Russian technology company Yandex were hit by drone attacks between October 7 and 11. The attacks caused damage to digital infrastructure and led to disruptions to various online services.
A first attack struck a Yandex data center in Sasovo, in the Ryazan region, on the night of October 7–8. According to the company, the location was severely damaged and shut down. Subsequently, a data center in Kaluga was hit, and on October 11, a third attack followed in the Vladimir region. These locations were also rendered inoperable. Yandex reports that no employees were injured.
Russian supercomputers
Two of the three supercomputers that Yandex uses to train its AI model YandexGPT are located in the data center in Sasovo. The company has not disclosed whether the supercomputers were affected by the attack.
Following the attacks, Yandex reported disruptions in parts of its cloud infrastructure and various online services. External platforms that depend on the company's infrastructure also experienced problems.
Yandex is often described as the Russian equivalent of Google. The company operates Russia's largest search engine, provides cloud and AI services, and supports a wide range of consumer and business applications. In a statement, the company called its data centers the 'iron heart' of the organization.
Response to attacks
The attacks follow a period in which Russia repeatedly attacked Ukrainian data centers and telecom facilities. During these attacks, various data center locations in and around the capital, Kyiv, were damaged.
Although Ukraine has not officially claimed every individual attack, the incidents are linked to Ukrainian drone operations in international media and Russian statements.
Data centers increasingly strategic targets
For the data center sector, these events once again make it clear that physical security is becoming increasingly important for the protection of critical IT infrastructure. In addition to cyber threats, operators must take into account attacks on the physical infrastructure on which cloud, AI, and communication services run.
Knowing more?
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