Activate DR plans: Yandex cloud unstable after drone strikes hit 3 data centers
Drone strikes damaged three Russian data centers, forcing Yandex to shut down facilities and urge customers to switch to alternative infrastructure.
Key points
- Yandex shut down two data centers and partially disabled a third after drone attacks in Sasovo, Kaluga, and Vladimir.
- The company declared its cloud platform unstable and operating in emergency mode, advising customers to use disaster recovery plans.
- Users reported missing thumbnails, failed downloads, and HTTP errors while accessing files on Yandex Disk and other services.
Yandex has urged customers to activate disaster recovery plans after drone attacks damaged three of its Russian data centers, causing widespread service instability. The physical strikes forced the technology giant to shut down two facilities completely and degrade operations at a third. According to BleepingComputer, the attacks occurred in Sasovo, Kaluga, and Vladimir over several days in October, leaving many users unable to access their cloud-stored files.
In plain English
Cloud services rely on large buildings filled with servers that store and process data. When those buildings are physically damaged, the digital services they host can stop working. Yandex, which provides search, maps, and cloud infrastructure for much of Russia, lost access to critical hardware. This means the software applications running on those servers cannot function normally. Users may see errors, experience slow loading times, or find that their files are temporarily unavailable because the physical machines hosting them are offline or damaged.
The background
The first strike hit the Sasovo data center during the night of October 7 to 8, causing serious damage that halted operations entirely, according to Cyber Security News. A second attack struck the Kaluga facility on October 9, disabling part of its infrastructure. A third attack hit the Vladimir site overnight on October 11, stopping operations there as well. Yandex reported no injuries in any of the incidents. The company stated that engineers are working around the clock, but assessing the equipment remains difficult. Consequently, Yandex cannot provide a reliable timeline for restoring full service.
What changes now
Yandex declared its remaining resource configuration unstable and its platform operating in emergency mode. The company warned that technical support channels might also be unstable. As of the latest updates, services like the Console, API, and databases were available but suffered from performance issues. Compute, AI Studio, and security services were only partially available. Monium remained offline. One customer reported issues starting on October 8, including missing thumbnails and an inability to download previously submitted files, alongside HTTP 302, 504, and 500 errors.
Key terms explained
Disaster recovery refers to the processes and tools organizations use to restore access to critical systems after a major disruption. In this context, it means shifting workloads to different servers or providers that were not affected by the physical damage. Teams usually maintain copies of important data in separate locations to ensure business continuity. Check whether your organization has tested its recovery plans recently. Verify that alternative infrastructure is ready to handle increased traffic. Ensure that staff know how to switch services without losing data during the transition.
Background: Disaster recovery plans
A disaster recovery plan is a documented set of procedures to restore technology infrastructure after a major incident. It defines who acts, how systems come back online, and the order of restoration. Proper planning minimizes downtime and data loss by ensuring you have verified, offline backups and clear communication channels ready before the crisis hits.
Read the full guide: Disaster Recovery Plans: How to Restore Systems After a Catastrophe
What to do and how to stay safe: Yandex
- Review your current reliance on Yandex Cloud services and identify which workloads are critical to your operations.
- Activate pre-established disaster recovery plans to migrate essential services to alternative infrastructure providers.
- Monitor technical support channels for updates, but expect potential instability in communication with the vendor.
- Verify the integrity of your data by checking for missing files or thumbnails, though failed downloads do not confirm permanent data loss.
Step-by-step guide: Implement Cloud Logging and Monitoring: A Step-by-Step Guide
General security guidance from the Vector Update newsroom. It is not confirmed advice from the organisations named in this story.
Frequently asked questions
Which Yandex data centers were damaged by the drone attacks?
The attacks damaged facilities in Sasovo, Kaluga, and Vladimir, with Sasovo and Vladimir shutting down completely and Kaluga experiencing degraded operations.
Is Yandex providing a timeline for when services will be fully restored?
No, Yandex stated it cannot provide a reliable service-restoration timeline due to the difficulty of assessing the damaged equipment.
Have there been any reports of permanent data loss for customers?
It remains unclear whether any customer data has been permanently lost, as failed downloads do not establish deletion, and Yandex has not addressed this question.
