Yandex Disrupted by Drone Attacks on Data Centers

"We consider the remaining resource configuration to be unstable," reads one of Yandex’s status updates — a blunt assessment of damage that has left parts of Russia’s largest tech company operating in emergency mode and customers unable to reach files stored in its cloud.

Three data centers damaged: Sasovo, Kaluga, Vladimir

Yandex said drone attacks struck three of its data centers on consecutive days: Sasovo on October 8, Kaluga on October 9, and Vladimir on October 11. The company reported the Sasovo and Vladimir facilities stopped operating completely, while the Kaluga site is operating with degraded capacity. Yandex also said there were no injuries related to the incidents.

Which Yandex services are affected and what remains online

Yandex’s status page lists mixed availability across its platform. As of the most recent update, Console, API, IAM, Container Registry, databases, S3 storage, and Kubernetes were available, though some reported performance or availability problems. Compute, AI Studio, and security services were partially available, while Monium was still offline. Separately, the company’s wider product portfolio — search, maps, ride-hailing, delivery, shopping, streaming, email, cloud storage, and business cloud infrastructure — underscores how many public and private services in the country depend on Yandex.

Customer reports: missing thumbnails and HTTP errors

Customers began reporting problems as early as October 8. One user reported backups to Yandex Disk with missing thumbnails and an inability to download previously submitted files. Attempts to access or work on those files returned HTTP 302 redirects, HTTP 504 Gateway Timeout errors, and HTTP 500 errors. Yandex acknowledged service outages and urged customers to use alternative infrastructure, but the company has not addressed whether any data stored in the affected data centers was irreversibly lost.

Attribution and an unexpected political ripple

Yandex said the attacks are believed to have been carried out by Ukrainian forces attempting to cause widespread operational disruptions. Separately, EU Member of the European Parliament Tomáš Zdechovský highlighted a possible connection between the Yandex outages and a sudden drop in communication from online accounts promoting far-right ideas in Germany, suggesting the outage’s effects extended into the information space beyond immediate cloud services.

Yandex’s operational posture and guidance to customers

Yandex said its teams are working around the clock to maintain services and assist affected customers and partners, but that it cannot provide a reliable timeline for restoration. The company advised customers to activate alternative disaster recovery infrastructure because “the platform's operating mode is emergency – we recommend using any other alternative disaster recovery plans. Technical-supported communication channels can be unstable.” The notice framed the current resource configuration as unstable and warned that technical communication channels used to support customers may themselves be unreliable.

What this means for Yandex customers, government and private-sector organizations, and EU policymakers

• Yandex customers and partners: Yandex explicitly urged customers to use alternative infrastructure for disaster recovery; affected customers are already reporting failed downloads and HTTP errors when attempting to retrieve backups or user files.
• Government and private-sector organizations that rely on Yandex services: Much of the country’s internet infrastructure serves both government and private-sector organizations via Yandex services, so outages that degrade or halt data-center operations create operational risk across multiple sectors.
• EU policymakers and observers (Tomáš Zdechovský): The outage was flagged by an MEP in connection with a sudden drop in activity among far-right-promoting accounts in Germany, indicating that the disruption may have downstream effects on online communications patterns beyond core cloud performance issues.

Yandex’s public updates make two facts plain: its teams are working continuously, and it cannot yet promise a timeline for full restoration. Equally clear is what remains unresolved — whether any customer data has been permanently lost and whether degraded services will persist as infrastructure is repaired. Those open questions will determine whether the event is a temporary operational crisis or one with longer-term consequences for customers, the institutions that depend on Yandex, and the online spaces that showed unexpected ripples during the outage.

Original story: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/yandex-confirms-service-outage-as-users-lose-access-to-cloud-files/