Russia’s Yandex says data centre in Vladimir shut down after drone attack

Third strike on Yandex facilities in a week comes as Russia and Ukraine escalate attacks on tech infrastructure.

In this file photo from October 8, Smoke billows from Yandex's Sasovo hub, one of the company's five large data centres, following a Ukrainian drone attack that forced operation suspension at the site, which hosts tens of thousands of servers [File: Reuters]

A Russian data centre run by technology and AI company ⁠Yandex has been shut down after it was hit in a drone attack.

No injuries were reported in the attack on the facility in the city of Vladimir, east of the capital, Moscow, the company said on Sunday.

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Emergency services were at the site and several of Yandex’s services were unavailable ‌to users, the company said, as it evaluated ways to restore its systems.

“Operations at the data centre have been completely suspended,” Yandex said in a service alert on Telegram, advising users to activate disaster-recovery plans as the platform operated in emergency mode.

“The remaining resource configuration is considered unstable,” it added, warning that technical support communications could also be disrupted as teams assessed the damage.

It is the third attack on the company’s data centres in the last week, as Russia and Ukraine continue to escalate attacks on each other’s technology infrastructure.

On Friday, Yandex, which ⁠is heavily involved ⁠in Russia’s AI development and is sometimes referred to as “Russia’s Google”, said its data centre in the Kaluga ⁠region southwest of Moscow was struck by ⁠Ukrainian drones and partly ⁠put out of action.

A day earlier, a Ukrainian attack shut down Yandex’s data hub ‌in Sasovo, southeast of Moscow, where two of the three supercomputers used ‌to ‌develop the company’s AI model are housed.

“We always respond in mirror-like fashion,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday, following the Sasovo strike. “You all know, they have been hitting and continue to hit our data centres. We are responding. I can’t share all the details.”

Russia has struck several Ukrainian data centres and telecommunications infrastructure facilities over the past month, including targets in central Kyiv, in an apparent effort to disrupt the country’s connectivity and digital commerce.

这是Yandex设施一周内第三次遭到袭击，此前俄罗斯和乌克兰加大了对科技基础设施的攻击力度。

这张摄于 10 月 8 日的资料照片显示，在乌克兰无人机袭击后，Yandex 位于萨索沃的数据中心（该公司五个大型数据中心之一）浓烟滚滚，该数据中心被迫暂停运营，托管着数万台服务器。[图片来源：路透社]

俄罗斯科技和人工智能公司Yandex运营的数据中心在遭到无人机袭击后已关闭。

该公司周日表示，在首都莫斯科以东弗拉基米尔市的工厂遭到袭击，没有人员伤亡报告。

问题 1/4：尽管受到制裁，美国为何仍转向俄罗斯进口柴油？

列表 2/4：乌克兰对俄罗斯莫斯科地区发动大规模无人机袭击，造成两人死亡

（共4起）俄罗斯袭击乌克兰克拉马托尔斯克公交车事件，造成至少30人死亡（列表3/4）

列表 4/4 “新策略”：俄罗斯扩大对乌克兰交通系统的致命袭击

该公司表示，紧急救援人员已抵达现场，由于正在评估恢复系统的方法，Yandex 的多项服务暂时无法供用户使用。

Yandex 在 Telegram 上发布服务警报称：“数据中心的运营已完全暂停”，并建议用户启动灾难恢复计划，因为该平台已进入紧急状态。

“剩余资源配置被认为不稳定，”声明补充道，并警告称，由于团队正在评估损失，技术支持通信也可能中断。

这是该公司数据中心在过去一周内遭受的第三次攻击，俄罗斯和乌克兰继续升级对对方技术基础设施的攻击。

周五，深度参与俄罗斯人工智能发展并有时被称为“俄罗斯谷歌”的Yandex公司表示，其位于莫斯科西南卡卢加州的数据中心遭到乌克兰无人机袭击，部分设施瘫痪。

一天前，乌克兰发动的一次攻击导致位于莫斯科东南部萨索沃的 Yandex 数据中心关闭，该公司用于开发人工智能模型的三台超级计算机中的两台就位于该数据中心。

乌克兰总统泽连斯基周四在萨索沃空袭事件后表示：“我们一贯以对等方式回应。你们都知道，他们一直在袭击我们的数据中心，而且还在继续袭击。我们正在做出回应。我无法透露所有细节。”

过去一个月，俄罗斯袭击了乌克兰的多个数据中心和电信基础设施，其中包括基辅市中心的目标，显然是为了破坏该国的网络连接和数字商务。