Russian users of "Telegram" and "WhatsApp" had problems accessing communications applications today due to disruptions that the state's Internet Traffic Monitoring Service said were caused by a suspected "distributed denial of service" (DDoS), reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
The office said the cyber attack was repelled and the apps are working normally again. Russian media reported that other sites were also affected, including "Wikipedia", "Skype" and the social platform "Discord".
"The outage is related to a "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) against Russian telecommunications operators", the service said in a statement, without specifying who might be responsible.
The outage of messaging apps widely used in Russia comes weeks after Russia's Internet watchdog reported a mass outage of video hosting site YouTube, as authorities in Russia is intensifying criticism of the platform, notes Reuters.
In 2022, the company that owns the application "WhatsApp" - "Meta Platforms", was denounced by Moscow as "extremist" organization, and the other services offered by it - "Facebook" and "Instagram" are now banned in Russia, but can still be accessed through virtual private networks (VPNs).