Table of contents
- Ukrainian and Belarusian hackers claim responsibility. Passenger data at risk
- Claim by the group Silent Crow
- The Kremlin’s response: “Alarming reports”
Ukrainian and Belarusian hackers claim responsibility. Passenger data at risk
A large-scale cyberattack targeted Russian airline Aeroflot on July 28, leading to the cancellation of over 50 flights, mainly departing from Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow.
At least ten additional flights were delayed, and routes to Minsk (Belarus) and Yerevan (Armenia) were also affected.
According to the Tass news agency, the attack allegedly destroyed around 7,000 servers, compromising the airline’s entire IT infrastructure. Two hacker groups — one Ukrainian and one Belarusian — have claimed responsibility and are threatening to leak personal data of Russian passengers.
Claim by the group Silent Crow
The incident was brought into focus by an online statement allegedly issued by a hacker group named Silent Crow, shortly after the service disruptions occurred.
The message, reported by Reuters and the Moscow Times, describes a deliberate cyberattack on Aeroflot’s systems, contradicting the airline’s initial claims of a simple “technical failure”.
According to the statement, the operation was coordinated with the Belarusian group Cyberpartisans By and is linked to the war in Ukraine. However, neither Reuters nor Russian sources could verify the authenticity of the statement, and Aeroflot has not officially commented on the hackers’ claims.
The Kremlin’s response: “Alarming reports”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described the situation as “worrying“, stating that the government is waiting for official clarifications from the Ministry of Transport and from Aeroflot itself.
“We’re reading the information that is emerging about this case. It is quite alarming,” Peskov said, adding that “the threat from hackers affects all major companies providing essential services to the population.”
Meanwhile, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has launched an investigation into “unauthorized access” to computer systems, officially confirming the start of a probe into a coordinated cyberattack.
