On the early hours of March 29, it was reported that a coordinated cyber-attack targeted Russian Federal Air Transport Agency RusAvia on Saturday March 26, deleting critical information and structures and severely impacting data restore capabilities.
Initial reports, yet unconfirmed, indicate that about sixty-five terabytes of data were erased, including aircraft registration, documents, and e-mails. The Russian Federation has admitted that it had suffered “intermittences” accessing the internet and a massive malfunction of electronic flow systems. According to Aviation24.be, the urgent messaging channel is still operational and alternative postal mail is available for administrative tasks.
Aviation Herald has revealed that there is no backup for those 65 terabytes of data lost, although that claim could not be confirmed. Also unconfirmed is the affirmation that Anonymous hacking group is behind the attack, as they haven´t claimed responsibility so far.
The Federal Air Transport Agency (Russian acronym Rosaviatsiya) is a part of the Russian government structure on the level of the Federation.
As a new phase of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict that is affecting the normal operation of civil aviation in the country, if confirmed, the magnitude of the cyber-attack would represent a major setback for Russian carriers.
This is a developing story.
