Russian national airline "Aeroflot" was forced to cancel dozens of flights after a large-scale cyberattack, for which a pro-Ukrainian hacker group allegedly claimed responsibility, and a Russian lawmaker described the incident as a warning signal for Moscow, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
The Kremlin said the situation was worrying, and the prosecutor's office confirmed that the damage to computer systems was the result of a hacker attack, and launched an investigation into a criminal act. State Duma deputy Anton Gorelkin said Russia was under attack in the digital space.
"We must not forget that the war against our country is being waged on all fronts, including in the digital space. And I do not exclude the possibility that the "hacktivists" who claimed responsibility for the incident are in the service of enemy states," Gorelkin said in a statement.
"Aeroflot" did not say how long it would take to resolve the problems, and the departure boards at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport lit up in red amid the large number of canceled flights at a time when many Russians are on vacation.
In a statement purportedly from a hacker group called "Silent Crow" (Silent Crow), it is stated that the operation was carried out jointly with a Belarusian group called "Cyberpartisans BY" and is related to the war in Ukraine.
"Glory to Ukraine! Long live Belarus", said the statement, the authenticity of which Reuters could not confirm. Ukraine has not yet commented on the incident.
"Silent Crow" has already claimed responsibility for attacks this year against a Russian real estate database, the Russian telecommunications company "Rostelecom", a major insurance company, the Moscow Department of Information Technology of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Russian office of the South Korean car manufacturer "Kia". Some of them led to large-scale data leaks.
"The information that we read in the public domain is quite disturbing. "The hacking threat is valid for all major companies providing public services," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"Aeroflot", the transport ministry and Russia's civil aviation agency "Rosaviatsia" did not respond to requests for comment on the attack.
The Russian national carrier said it had canceled more than 40 flights - mostly domestic flights within Russia, but also those to the Belarusian capital Minsk and the Armenian capital Yerevan - after reporting a failure in its information system. At least 10 other flights were delayed.
"Specialists are currently working to reduce the impact (of the hack) on the flight schedule and restore normal service," Aeroflot said.
The statement, which is said to have been issued on behalf of "Silent Crow", said the cyberattack was the result of a year-long operation that penetrated deep into "Aeroflot"'s network, destroyed 7,000 servers and took control of the personal computers of employees, including management.
The group published screenshots of file systems that it said were part of the "Aeroflot" network and threatened to soon begin publishing "personal data of all Russians who have ever used the services of "Aeroflot"".