The Russian national airline Aeroflot experienced an unprecedented cyber attack that paralyzed its information systems and forced management to cancel a significant number of domestic and international flights.
The group known as Silent Crow took responsibility for the attack through an official message on the Telegram platform. According to their statement, the operation was "prolonged and large-scale", completely compromising the carrier's internal technological infrastructure.
The hackers claimed they managed to destroy corporate databases, take over corporate computers, and threatened to publish personal data of all Russian citizens who have ever traveled with Aeroflot.
The Russian prosecutor's office officially confirmed the information systems crash and launched a criminal investigation. The Transport Ministry announced that some passengers will be redirected to alternative carriers.
The canceled flights mainly affected domestic routes, but international routes to Belarus, Armenia, and Tashkent were also impacted. Experts define the case as extremely rare, where a cyber attack has a direct and visible impact on a large Russian corporation.
Silent Crow reported that they worked jointly with the Belarusian hacker group Cyber Partisans, which has been conducting targeted attacks against Russian and Belarusian targets since 2022. Cyber Partisans define themselves as a highly organized collective formation fighting for the liberation of Belarus from dictatorial rule.
Expert analyses show that such hacker groups often exaggerate their achievements, with the aim of generating media pressure and lowering the enemy's morale. However, the current attack stands out for its scale and direct consequences.
This incident occurs against the backdrop of the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which since February 2022 has caused frequent destabilizing actions in the transport sector. Just a week ago, hundreds of flights were canceled due to Ukrainian drone attacks on the four main Moscow airports.
Cybersecurity specialists warn that there are doubts about the real independence of such hacker formations, with some analyses pointing to possible connections with special services of the countries they support.
At the moment, official Aeroflot representatives have not made a detailed comment on the scale and consequences of the cyber attack, which further intensifies speculation about what happened.