Data Center Attacks and Traffic Drop
Russian bot traffic has dropped dramatically in the past few days after Ukraine knocked out Yandex’s biggest data centers, with a third attack happening recently. Cloudflare reports that bot traffic from the Yandex network has dropped to just 0.4% of the maximum number of HTTP requests recorded in the past two weeks. It initially dropped to around 57% on Oct. 8, when Ukraine hit a Yandex data center housing two supercomputers in Sasovo, Russia. A second, bigger Yandex campus in Kaluga was knocked offline the following day. These attacks follow Moscow’s strikes on data infrastructure.
Impact on Yandex Services
Yandex is Russia’s equivalent to Google, and its Yandex Cloud service status reports that at least 84 services are currently offline. Global internet monitoring firm NetBlocks said that Yandex’s network traffic has dropped to just 30% for Yandex Cloud and 63% for Yandex LLC, resulting in slower internet services or complete disruption for users in the region.
Metrics show a second collapse in the networks of Russian tech giant Yandex after a new Ukrainian drone attack on data centers in Vladimir.
Conflict Context and Long-Range Drones
These incidents are a result of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which escalated dramatically in 2022. The hostilities have seen the introduction of new technologies and strategies, specifically in long-range drone warfare capable of reaching significant distances behind front lines.
Military engagements have evolved from the deployment of commercial reconnaissance drones to long-range operations capable of targeting critical infrastructure deep within enemy territory.
The drone strikes on data centers represent a newer development in modern conflict, raising questions about the vulnerability of large-scale cloud and hosting infrastructure to kinetic attacks.
