Yandex confirms drone strikes on three data centers, forcing emergency mode
Yandex says drone attacks in Sasovo, Vladimir, and Kaluga disrupted services, prompting emergency protocols and customer alerts.
Key points
- Yandex confirmed drone strikes damaged facilities in Sasovo, Vladimir, and Kaluga, shutting down or impairing operations.
- The company placed its cloud platform in emergency mode on October 11, advising customers to activate disaster recovery plans.
- Ukrainian forces carried out the strikes, with President Zelenskyy stating they were a mirror response to attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure.
Yandex confirmed that Ukrainian drone strikes damaged three of its data centers, disrupting cloud services and forcing the Russian tech giant into emergency operational mode. The attacks targeted facilities in Sasovo, Vladimir, and Kaluga, causing significant outages for customers relying on the company’s infrastructure.
On October 11, Yandex Cloud notified customers that the platform was running in emergency mode after a strike shut down the Vladimir facility. The company advised users to switch to their own disaster recovery plans, noting that technical support channels might be unstable. This event marked the third data center hit within four days, severely impacting the company’s ability to maintain standard service levels.
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Attack Timeline and Damage
The Sasovo data center in the Ryazan region suffered serious damage during an attack on the night of October 7 to 8, ceasing operations entirely. The Kaluga facility was struck on the morning of October 9, resulting in partial infrastructure loss. The Vladimir data center went offline following an attack on the night of October 11. Yandex stated that no employees were injured in any of the incidents, though the physical damage to the facilities was substantial.
Alexander Avdeyev, the governor of the Vladimir region, reported that the drones attacked infrastructure on the outskirts of the city. The strike caused a fire and knocked out two substations supplying electricity to 5,000 residents. People living closest to the site were evacuated as engineers worked to restore power and assess the extent of the damage to the Yandex Cloud platform.
Strategic Context and Response
Ukrainian forces carried out the strikes, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stating that Ukraine was responding to Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centers. He emphasized that Kyiv always responds in a mirror-like fashion to such aggression. The Sasovo facility housed two of the three supercomputers Yandex uses to develop its AI model, according to Reuters, highlighting the strategic value of the target.
Yandex describes its data centers as its “iron heart,” powering daily services for millions and supporting hundreds of thousands of businesses. The company acknowledged that every outage disrupts plans and daily life for users. While the platform remains operational in a limited mode, engineers are continuing recovery efforts. The company has not disclosed whether any customer data stored in the damaged centers was permanently lost.
What should you do?
Security professionals should monitor the stability of services hosted on Yandex Cloud, as the platform is operating in emergency mode. Organizations relying on Russian digital infrastructure should verify their disaster recovery plans and ensure alternative hosting options are available. Watch for instability in communication channels with technical support, as Yandex warned these may be unreliable.
What to do and how to stay safe: Yandex
- Verify that your organization’s disaster recovery plans are active and tested, especially if you rely on Yandex Cloud services.
- Monitor service status pages and technical support channels for updates on platform stability and recovery timelines.
- Ensure that critical data backups are stored on alternative, geographically distinct infrastructure to mitigate risk from localized physical attacks.
- Review incident response procedures to address potential data loss or extended outages caused by physical infrastructure damage.
General security guidance from the Threat Times newsroom. It is not confirmed advice from the organisations named in this story.
Frequently asked questions
Did any Yandex employees get hurt in the drone strikes?
No, Yandex stated that none of its employees were hurt in the attacks on the Sasovo, Kaluga, or Vladimir data centers.
Is customer data lost from the damaged data centers?
Yandex did not disclose whether any customer data stored in the damaged data centers was lost permanently.
Why did Ukraine target Yandex data centers?
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was responding to Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centers in a mirror-like fashion.
