On October 9, a second drone strike from Ukraine targeted a major data center operated by Yandex in the Kaluga region, located southwest of Moscow. This facility is recognized as one of the largest in Russia, boasting a maximum capacity of 63 megawatts.
Subsequently, on October 11, a third drone strike compelled Yandex to halt operations at another data center situated in Vladimir, east of the capital. This center houses the Galushkin supercomputer, which ranks 134th on the global Top 500 list and is capable of delivering 20.64 petaflops of computing performance.
Impact on Russia’s Digital Infrastructure
The repercussions of the attacks on Yandex‘s data centers have been significant for Russian society. The disruption has reportedly led to outages across essential services, including digital banking, popular payment applications, e-commerce platforms, video streaming services, and food delivery apps. Notably, Yandex‘s search engine dominates the Russian market, holding approximately 70 percent of the share.
The fallout extends further, impacting Yandex‘s cloud computing services, which serve several of Russia’s largest corporations, as highlighted by The Moscow Times. These clients include major grocery chains and fast-food outlets, as well as a well-known appliance retailer.
In a warning issued by a Russian military blogger known as Ratio Militaris, the hypercentralized nature of Yandex‘s digital ecosystem has been identified as a critical vulnerability for Russia. He noted that what was once a competitive advantage has now revealed itself as a significant weakness, largely due to hyper-centralization. This has created a scenario where the entire digital infrastructure relied heavily on a small number of substantial data nodes.
Establishing secondary infrastructure systems abroad may present challenges for Yandex and other Russian companies, particularly as a result of the “Sovereign Internet Law” enacted in 2019 by the Russian government. This legislation limits the ability of these businesses to secure alternative data services outside the country, as pointed out by military blogger Artjockey.
Editor’s Take
This situation underscores the fragility of centralized digital infrastructures, particularly in times of conflict. For users and businesses relying on Yandex, the recent disruptions will necessitate a re-evaluation of digital dependencies and crisis management strategies. As these events unfold, the implications for cybersecurity and the future of cloud services in Russia become increasingly significant.
Source: arstechnica.com
