A major Distributed Denial of Service attack recently targeted Russian provider ASVT, disrupting internet for tens of thousands in Moscow for several days. This severe incident, which the company called one of the year’s worst, began Tuesday and continued impacting services well into Friday. ASVT’s mobile application, its official website, and numerous customer accounts experienced significant disruptions throughout the entire prolonged attack period. Consequently, residents in large complexes reported being unable to work remotely, use card terminals, or access buildings due to disabled internet intercoms. The widespread outage caused considerable problems for daily life and work routines for many people living in the affected Moscow areas.
ASVT stated it is working closely with Russian state agencies, including communications regulator Roskomnadzor, to fully restore all affected internet services. The company officially attributed this debilitating attack to the Ukrainian “IT Army,” a known pro-Kyiv hacker collective famous for targeting Russian infrastructure. However, it is noteworthy that the IT Army of Ukraine has not yet publicly claimed direct responsibility for this specific ASVT disruption. This current situation unfortunately echoes a similar March disruption when another provider, Lovit, was impacted by a cyberattack affecting over 200,000 residents. The IT Army of Ukraine did later claim full responsibility for that earlier extensive Lovit internet service attack.
Both ASVT and Lovit have faced considerable public scrutiny not only for their apparent cyber vulnerabilities but also for alleged monopolistic practices. Following the extensive Lovit outage, affected apartment block residents accused that company of intentionally blocking competitors and charging highly inflated prices. Consequently, Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service launched an official probe into Lovit’s business practices and is now also investigating ASVT’s current operations. In addition to many residential complexes, ASVT also provides essential internet services to government institutions and major enterprises in the Moscow metropolitan area. It currently remains unclear whether those significant institutional and corporate customers were also affected by this widespread disruptive cyberattack against the provider.
Russian telecommunication firms have unfortunately become frequent targets for pro-Ukrainian hackers amid the ongoing war and associated regional geopolitical tensions. According to detailed analyses from Russian cybersecurity experts, over 30% of all DDoS attacks in Russia last year specifically targeted various telecom companies. The vast majority of these highly disruptive incidents are widely believed by analysts to be politically motivated rather than for direct financial gain. In January, the collective known as the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance claimed it had successfully destroyed infrastructure belonging to Nodex, another Russian provider. Around that same time, a different hacking group, Silent Crow, claimed to have stolen and subsequently leaked sensitive customer data from a contractor.
Reference:
