Railway collapse: hackers disable route between Moscow and St. Petersburg

One of the main operators of suburban trains in the Moscow region, the Moscow-Tver Suburban Passenger Company, has been the target of a large-scale cyberattack. The attack paralyzed key digital systems that provide rail service between Moscow and Tver.

This was reported by the Center for Strategic Communications.

According to eyewitnesses, critical infrastructure has been compromised. Cash registers, ticket validation systems, and dispatching equipment are not working. Damage to servers and network equipment has effectively halted service on the route, which is part of the main line between Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The virtual collapse of the transport system has not only hit the railways. According to preliminary estimates, the company will lose at least 20 million rubles a day, while the indirect losses to enterprises and businesses whose employees cannot get to work are even higher. Full recovery could take days or even weeks.

The total damage is estimated to be between $3 million and $10 million.

As a reminder, as a result of a large-scale cyberattack by two hacker groups — Silent Crow and the Belarusian “Cyberpartisans” — the IT infrastructure of the Russian airline Aeroflot was destroyed, dozens of flights were canceled, and 20 TB of data was stolen, including personal information of passengers . The hackers stated that they had been monitoring the company’s critical systems for a year, and are now preparing to publish the stolen information. In response, the Russian authorities are silent.

It should be noted that the incident affected more than 20,000 passengers, and the total financial losses could reach tens of millions of dollars . The full restoration of the digital infrastructure could take up to a year.

As reported, Ukrainian cyber activists, in cooperation with military intelligence, successfully paralyzed the activities of one of the largest Russian drone manufacturers, the company Gaskar Integration . As a result of the attack, more than 47 TB of critical data was destroyed, internal systems were blocked, and the plant’s work was effectively stopped.

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