Yandex Says Drone Attack on Sasovo Data Center May Be Unrecoverable
Russian tech giant Yandex warns that its ru-central1-b cloud zone may not be restorable in the near future after a drone strike halted operations.
Key points
- A drone attack caused a fire at a Yandex data center in Sasovo, Russia, halting operations in the ru-central1-b availability zone.
- Yandex advises customers that service restoration in the near future may not be possible and recommends alternative recovery plans.
- This incident marks the second time this year a major cloud provider has lost a facility to a kinetic drone attack, following AWS in Bahrain.
Russian technology company Yandex confirmed that a drone attack caused a fire at its data center in Sasovo, resulting in the complete halt of operations for its ru-central1-b cloud availability zone. The incident has disrupted services for customers relying on this specific infrastructure segment within Russia’s largest internet ecosystem.
According to Yandex, the fire affected part of its cloud infrastructure, leading to an immediate shutdown of data center operations. The company stated that it is uncertain whether restoring service in the affected zone is possible in the near future. Yandex has advised users to implement unspecified alternative service restoration plans, including the use of its own bare metal servers, to maintain continuity.
Context and Background
Sasovo, the location of the compromised facility, is a town situated approximately 300 kilometers southeast of Moscow. Yandex, which dominates the Russian market for search, email, and mapping services, operates this cloud computing service as a critical part of its business portfolio. The company has not publicly identified the source of the drone attack that triggered the fire and subsequent infrastructure failure.
Ukrainian press reports indicate that President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated Russia has attacked Ukrainian data centers. Zelensky reportedly said his government always responds in kind to such infrastructure strikes. Reuters reports that Yandex remains uncertain about the feasibility of restoring operations at the Sasovo site, suggesting the damage may be permanent or require extensive recovery time.
Who Is Affected
This event represents a significant escalation in kinetic attacks against cloud infrastructure. If Yandex must write off the data center, it will be the second major cloud provider to lose facilities to drone attacks this year. Earlier this year, Amazon Web Services (AWS) decided its Bahrain facility could not be recovered after an Iranian drone attack.
Iran targeted AWS facilities because it believed the cloud giant hosts workloads for the US military and its suppliers. The intent was to disrupt hostilities by damaging critical infrastructure. Industry executives have long warned The Register that data centers are critical infrastructure and likely targets for kinetic attacks during conflicts, either directly or through attacks on energy grids and communications services.
What should you do?
Security professionals should review their current cloud architecture to ensure workloads are distributed across multiple geographically dispersed availability zones. Relying on a single region or zone increases vulnerability to localized physical or kinetic events. Organizations should validate their disaster recovery plans to ensure they can failover to alternative providers or regions without significant data loss.
What to do and how to stay safe: Yandex
- Audit current cloud deployments to ensure critical workloads are replicated across multiple geographic regions and availability zones.
- Verify that disaster recovery plans include procedures for failing over to alternative cloud providers or bare metal infrastructure.
- Monitor vendor status pages and official communications for updates on physical security incidents affecting data centers.
- Review insurance coverage to ensure it includes losses related to physical damage or kinetic attacks on third-party infrastructure.
Step-by-step guide: Social Engineering Warning Signs and How to Respond
General security guidance from the Threat Times newsroom. It is not confirmed advice from the organisations named in this story.
Frequently asked questions
Which Yandex cloud availability zone was affected by the drone attack?
The ru-central1-b availability zone was affected by the fire caused by the drone attack on the Sasovo data center.
Has Yandex confirmed who launched the drone attack?
No, Yandex has not commented on the source of the drone attack, though Ukrainian press reports link it to retaliatory actions.
Has any other major cloud provider lost a facility to a drone attack this year?
Yes, Amazon Web Services (AWS) lost its Bahrain facility to an Iranian drone attack earlier this year and could not recover it.
