Yandex Cloud Outages Force Businesses to Activate Disaster Recovery Plans
Drone strikes on Russian data centers have disrupted cloud services, prompting Yandex to advise customers to rely on alternative infrastructure for continuity.
Key points
- Three Yandex data centers were damaged by drone attacks in late October, causing partial or total shutdowns.
- Critical services like compute and storage are experiencing instability, with no guaranteed restoration timeline.
- Yandex advises customers to utilize alternative disaster recovery plans due to the emergency operating mode.
Russian technology giant Yandex has confirmed significant service disruptions following physical attacks on its infrastructure. According to a report by BleepingComputer, drone strikes damaged three data centers, forcing the company to shut down two facilities completely and partially disable a third. This physical destruction has directly impacted the availability of cloud storage and other digital services for customers relying on Yandex’s infrastructure.
The risk
The attacks targeted facilities in Sasovo, Kaluga, and Vladimir, with hits occurring on October 8, October 9, and October 11 respectively. The Sasovo and Vladimir sites ceased operations entirely, while the Kaluga facility continues to operate at a degraded level. Yandex stated that its teams are working around the clock but cannot provide a reliable timeline for full service restoration. The company described its current resource configuration as unstable and its operating mode as emergency, warning that technical communication channels may also be unreliable.
Who is exposed
Yandex serves as a critical infrastructure provider for much of Russia’s internet, supporting both government entities and private-sector organizations. The company offers a wide range of services, including cloud storage, business infrastructure, search, maps, and navigation. Customers have reported specific issues, such as missing thumbnails for backups on Yandex Disk and an inability to download previously stored files. These outages affect users who depend on Yandex for data storage and application hosting, highlighting the vulnerability of centralized cloud providers to physical security threats.
Cost and compliance
The financial and operational impact on businesses is immediate, with many unable to access critical files or maintain normal operations. Yandex’s status page indicates that while some services like the Console, API, and IAM are available, they suffer from performance and availability issues. Compute, AI Studio, and security services are only partially available, while the Monium service remains completely offline. This partial availability creates a complex environment for IT managers trying to maintain business continuity without a clear path to full recovery.
What happens next
Yandex has explicitly urged its customers to activate alternative disaster recovery plans to mitigate the impact of these outages. The company’s status updates emphasize that the platform is in an emergency mode, suggesting that reliance on Yandex services for critical operations is currently inadvisable. Managers should expect continued instability and should not assume that services will return to normal levels in the immediate future. The lack of a restoration timeline means that organizations must prepare for prolonged disruption.
Background: Disaster recovery plans
A disaster recovery plan checklist ensures you can restore critical systems after a ransomware attack or hardware failure. It lists specific technical and procedural steps to validate backups, restore network connectivity, and verify data integrity before reopening services to users.
Read the full guide: Disaster Recovery Plan Checklist: Restore Operations After Attack
What to do and how to stay safe: Yandex
- Verify if your organization relies on Yandex Cloud services for critical data storage or application hosting.
- Activate pre-established disaster recovery plans that utilize alternative cloud providers or on-premises infrastructure.
- Monitor official Yandex status pages for updates on service availability, but assume communication channels may be unstable.
- Ensure that recent backups are accessible outside of the Yandex ecosystem to prevent data loss during extended outages.
Step-by-step guide: Implement MFA for Cloud Accounts: A Step-by-Step Rollout Plan
General security guidance from the CloudSec Pulse newsroom. It is not confirmed advice from the organisations named in this story.
Frequently asked questions
Which specific Yandex data centers were affected by the drone attacks?
The data centers in Sasovo, Kaluga, and Vladimir were hit on October 8, 9, and 11, respectively.
Is Yandex providing a timeline for when services will be fully restored?
No, Yandex has stated that it cannot provide a reliable service-restoration timeline at this time.
Are there any reports of injuries from these attacks?
Yandex reported that there were no injuries related to the drone attacks on its facilities.
