Russian flag carrier stops more than 40 flights as hacker team claims cyberattack

(MENAFN) Russia’s national airline, Aeroflot, canceled more than 40 flights on Monday due to what it described as an information system failure. The airline, based at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport, did not specify the cause of the disruption or how long it would take to restore normal operations.

Passengers affected by the cancellations were offered refunds or the option to rebook flights within the next 10 days, according to an official statement. Most of the canceled flights were domestic, but some international routes to Armenia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan were also affected.

The Russian prosecutor general’s office confirmed that the information system failure was caused by a cyberattack and has opened a criminal investigation.

A hacker group calling itself Silent Crow claimed responsibility in a Telegram statement, alleging they “completely destroyed” Aeroflot’s internal IT infrastructure after a “long-term and large-scale operation.” The group said they had been inside the airline’s corporate network for a year, gradually gaining deep access and eventually destroying around 7,000 servers while stealing 22 terabytes of data.

Silent Crow also threatened to soon release the personal data of all Russians who have ever flown with Aeroflot. The airline has not commented on the hackers’ claims, and Anadolu has not been able to verify the authenticity of the statement.

MENAFN29072025000045015687ID1109856825