The Russian airline Aeroflot was forced to cancel dozens of flights on Monday after a pro-Ukraine hacking group with a track record of claiming responsibility for hacking targets in Russia said it had carried out a cyber-attack.
Aeroflot did not provide further details about the cause of the problem or how long it would take to resolve, but departure boards at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport turned red as flights were cancelled at a time when many Russians take their holidays.
The Kremlin said the situation was worrying, and prosecutors confirmed the airline’s problems were the result of a hack and opened a criminal investigation.
A statement purporting to be from a hacking group called Silent Crow said it had carried out the operation with a Belarusian group called Cyber Partisans, and linked it to the war in Ukraine.
“Glory to Ukraine! Long live Belarus!” said the statement.
Silent Crow has previously claimed responsibility for attacks this year on a Russian real estate database, a state telecoms company, a large insurer, the Moscow government’s IT department and the Russian office of the South Korean carmaker Kia. Some of these resulted in big data leaks.
“The information that we are reading in the public domain is quite alarming. The hacker threat is a threat that remains for all large companies providing services to the population,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said.
“We will, of course, clarify the information and wait for appropriate clarifications.”
Aeroflot, the transport ministry and the aviation regulator did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the hacking claim, according to Reuters.
Rafe Pilling, director of threat intelligence at the cybersecurity firm Sophos, said the attack appeared to be driven by political motives.
“It appears to be a sort of a politically motivated hacktivist event from two groups opposed to Russia,” he said.
Pilling added that despite Silent Crow’s claims to have accessed the personal data of Aeroflot customers, the attack did not appear to be financially motivated – unlike ransomware attacks that cripple a target’s computer systems and siphon off data for financial gain.
“I get the impression that their objective is not a cybercrime ransomware attack,” he said. “It is probably more of a disruption protest.”
Pilling added that the Cyber Partisans appeared to have been on the hacking scene for longer, having existed since the turn of the decade and having been linked to attacks over a longer period of time.
When Russia invade Ukraine in 2022, hacking became part of Kyiv’s fightback with the formation of a 300,000-strong group on the chat app Telegram called “IT Army of Ukraine”.
The airline said it had cancelled more than 50 flights – mostly within Russia but also including routes to the Belarusian capital, Minsk, and the Armenian capital, Yerevan – after reporting a failure in its information systems. At least 10 other flights were delayed.
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“Specialists are currently working to minimise the impact on the flight schedule and to restore normal service operations,” it said.
The statement in the name of Silent Crow said the cyber-attack was the result of a year-long operation that had deeply penetrated Aeroflot’s network, destroyed 7,000 servers and gained control over the personal computers of employers including senior managers. It did not provide evidence.
It threatened to shortly start releasing “the personal data of all Russians who have ever flown Aeroflot”.
Since Russia launched its war in Ukraine in February 2022, travellers in Russia have become accustomed to flight disruptions. However, those delays have usually been caused by temporary airport closures during drone attacks.
Irate passengers vented their anger on the social network VK, complaining of a lack of clear information from the airline.
Malena Ashi wrote: “I’ve been sitting at the Volgograd airport since 3:30!!!!! The flight has been rescheduled for the third time!!!!!! This time it was rescheduled for approximately 14:50, and it was supposed to depart at 5:00!!!”
Another traveller, Yulia Pakhota, posted: “The call centre is unavailable, the website is unavailable, the app is unavailable.
How can I return a ticket or exchange it for the next flight, as Aeroflot suggests?”
Aeroflot said affected passengers could get a refund or rebook within 10 days.
Despite western sanctions imposed on Russia that have drastically limited travel and routes, Aeroflot remains among the top 20 airlines worldwide by passenger numbers, which last year hit 55.3 million people, according to its website.
