70% of data deleted in March cyber attack on Russian aviation authority: Reports

The Russian Prosecutor General’s office began reviewing the computer infrastructure of the Russian Federal Agency for Air Transport (Rosaviatsiya). 

The review is aimed at investigating the circumstances of a cyber attack which occurred on March 26, 2022. 

According to Russian news website RBC, two sources, one within the prosecutor’s office and another within Rosaviatsiya, confirmed the news. 

The sources said the damages of the attack amounted to more than 80 million rubles ($1.1 million) and over 70% of data on Rosaviatsiya’s servers has been damaged, with some data still not recovered, RBC reports. 

Additionally, according to the same sources, the Deputy Transport Minister of Russia, Kirill Bogdanov has resigned as a result of the attack. Bogdanov resigned on April 14. He denied that his resignation had anything to do with the attack, RBC writes. 

RBC’s sources provide additional details of the attack. The sources claim intruders accessed Rosaviatsiya’s network through an administrator account belonging to InfAvia, a company that provides Rosaviatsiya with IT services.  

The perpetrator of the attack remains a mystery. It was initially reported that the attack was performed by the hacker collective Anonymous. However, the group has since denied any involvement in the incident.  

According to earlier reports, more than 65 terabytes of data have been deleted from Rosaviatsiya’s servers, and the agency has been forced to transition to using paper documents due to damage to its communications network. 

In late March, the head of Rosaviatsiya, Alexander Neradko denied that any damage had been done, saying that the attack was repelled, and the work of the agency had not been interrupted.