Russia Was Not Ready For the Data Center War It Started With Ukraine (arstechnica.com) 169
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: When Russia began attacking Ukrainian data centers and telecommunication infrastructure, it apparently failed to prepare for possible retaliation. Now Russia's digital services are facing widespread outages after Ukrainian drone strikes knocked out three of the largest data centers owned by Russian tech giant Yandex within several days. Pro-Kremlin bloggers are warning that Russia's centralized digital economy could collapse because the country is not prepared for the "data center war" it started, according to posts translated by the pseudonymous independent researcher ChrisO_wiki. The Russian commentators also suggested that Ukraine's decentralized digital services could prove more resilient than Russia's system if the countries continue trading such blows.
Russia initially launched a drone strike campaign targeting Ukrainian data centers and mobile phone networks in late September. The attacks temporarily disrupted Internet and cell phone service for up to 100,000 households in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and came as part of a broader long-range strike campaign that has involved Russian missiles and jet-powered drones hitting Ukraine's power grid infrastructure, transportation hubs, and even residential apartment building blocks. But Ukraine soon began striking back at data centers owned by the Russian company Yandex, also known as "Russia's Google," in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described as a "symmetrical response."
[...] More importantly for Russian society, the damage to Yandex's data centers has reportedly caused interruptions or outages to popular Russian payment apps and digital banking services, email, e-commerce platforms, video streaming services, ride-hailing and food delivery apps, and navigation and map services. Yandex's search engine also accounts for about 70 percent of the market share in Russia. The disruptions are even more widespread, because the data center damage also impacts Yandex's cloud computing service, which counts some of Russia's largest companies as customers, according to The Moscow Times, an independent newspaper. These include large grocery and fast-food chains as well as a household appliance retailer.
Russia initially launched a drone strike campaign targeting Ukrainian data centers and mobile phone networks in late September. The attacks temporarily disrupted Internet and cell phone service for up to 100,000 households in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and came as part of a broader long-range strike campaign that has involved Russian missiles and jet-powered drones hitting Ukraine's power grid infrastructure, transportation hubs, and even residential apartment building blocks. But Ukraine soon began striking back at data centers owned by the Russian company Yandex, also known as "Russia's Google," in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described as a "symmetrical response."
[...] More importantly for Russian society, the damage to Yandex's data centers has reportedly caused interruptions or outages to popular Russian payment apps and digital banking services, email, e-commerce platforms, video streaming services, ride-hailing and food delivery apps, and navigation and map services. Yandex's search engine also accounts for about 70 percent of the market share in Russia. The disruptions are even more widespread, because the data center damage also impacts Yandex's cloud computing service, which counts some of Russia's largest companies as customers, according to The Moscow Times, an independent newspaper. These include large grocery and fast-food chains as well as a household appliance retailer.
As they say... (Score:5, Insightful)
Or they could have just rented the damn port for a metric butt-ton of money.
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If they'd have opened nuclear power plants with the funds put towards the war, they'd have made more
...Chernobyls
Re:As they say... (Score:5, Interesting)
Chernobyl (actually in ukraine but whatever) was really the clusterfuck confluence of a very old design capable of a proper meltdown (modern designs literally can not) , incompetence, and a metric tonne of rotten luck. For modern designs the worst case scenario is Fukushima. An inconvenience not much worse than, say, blowing up an oil refinery, not an environmental omnicatastrophe.
Fukushima on the other hand, only led to MAYBE one death as a result of the accident, and a few handfuls of injuries. with 40 dead as a result of the evacuation, but keep in mind, it was a frigging earthquake, that did most of the damage, not the actual nuclear accident. If anything it showed in the very worst case scenario, destruction of the reactor, the design was safe. You'd have had more deaths if it was an oil refactory, because when THOSE things explode, there are significant deaths just because thats what happens when you blow up explosive fuels.
The real problem with modern nuclear is its just expensive and extremely complicated to get running compared with the cheaper energy from solar, wind, etc. But. the Environmental dangers? We solved that issue decades ago.
Re: As they say... (Score:2, Interesting)
"The real problem with modern nuclear is its just expensive and extremely complicated to get running compared with the cheaper energy from solar, wind, etc. But. the Environmental dangers? We solved that issue decades ago."
Who is "we" here? Certainly not a failing country that will absolutely cut every corner.
Re: As they say... (Score:5, Insightful)
The USSR ways survives in Russia not Ukraine (Score:2)
Chernobyl (actually in ukraine but whatever) ...
Actually in the USSR, and that USSR way of thinking and doing things survives today in Russia not Ukraine
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Precisely where I was going there. Ukraine is trying to move forwards, Russia is trying to get the old band back together for another sad tired old jam,.
Re:As they say... (Score:5, Interesting)
Fukushima was an inconvenience? Half a trillion Euros to clean up, and rising, and at least 200 billion Euros of consequential economic damage. Multiple full meltdowns, at least 51 deaths, and 164,000 residence displaced.
Modern reactors absolutely can melt down. I don't know where you got that idea from. The new SMR designs can too.
Re:As they say... (Score:4, Interesting)
Chernobyl hit criticality. Fukushima did not. There is a *vast* difference.
Keep it up... (Score:5, Insightful)
With Russia's highly centralized systems maybe Ukraine has found a reasonable soft spot that they can hammer. They need to find these if they want to survive.
Re:Keep it up... (Score:4, Informative)
The only reason the putin regime is still standing after 5 years of war that eas planned as a 3 weeks long "operation" is the careful American brinkmanship to kerp yhem from disintegration.
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Fuck off, naggit, chewing on Ukrainian bodies.
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Already answered above
You did not. These are some dumb suppositions of yours. The answer is simple - trump is selling out the "Western civilization" for pennies and a pat on the head from putin.
trump got himself in a shithole because he's stupid and he listened to those other war criminals, who want to avoid multiple convictions for their crimes, too. And trump did, just like them, start wars he can't win. under the orange shitgibbon the Amurrikah has gone so far down the Iranian lane that it is now going to do public executions
Welp (Score:2)
A thousand cuts (Score:5, Interesting)
I also imagine there are a lot of well-rested folks, both Russian and not, who know of an opportunity to make it worse.
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I expect that Yandex is hiding behind statements in their contracts and Russian laws governing liability due to armed conflict to try to skate any responsibility to their customers.
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I'm talking about the many folks who have reason kicking them when they're down, right now.
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i was hoping to get first post (Score:3, Funny)
since the russian troll bot farms are down
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Good for the US as well... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a good thing for the US since it seems that these data centers hosted bot farms spreading all kinds of lies in an attempt to influence the upcoming US elections.
Re:Good for the US as well... (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh and no matter which side of politics you support, anyone who wants elections in the US to be free, fair and democratic should be opposed to foreign governments and entities using social media bots to influence the outcome of those elections.
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....Unless we can be bought off with crypto fascist free speech corporate oligarchies. If Democracy and Communism both lose and make everyone pay, then the leadership is the problem. When our enemy is the best solution then winning is suicidal. Suicide is still homocide, it really doesn't matter who you murder as long as you win, even if it kills you. Like a marriage. Then you win after you suffer to death. But at least you win, and you were already born right. You just had to prove it to the losers, w
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Re:Good for the US as well... (Score:5, Informative)
Oh and no matter which side of politics you support, anyone who wants elections in the US to be free, fair and democratic should be opposed to foreign governments and entities using social media bots to influence the outcome of those elections.
Oh, hey! Didja hear about the Saudis and the Emirates and Qatar buying CBS and CNN? [arstechnica.com]
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... buying CBS and CNN?
No one else wants them.
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That's what Xi said... (Score:3)
Mostly I just wanted the excuse for the attempted Subjective joke, but...
Considering the secondary effects seemed to be the most interesting of the early comments, though it mostly made me wonder about Xi's take on the situation. On the one hand, Xi wants to keep the invasion option open just in case Taiwan tries to declare independence... On the second hand, kinetic military strikes on data centers is a bigger threat to countries with lots of data centers, which mostly means the US and China...
So back to t
Re: That's what Xi said... (Score:2)
The big spammers in Russia are government sponsored, and the government hates competition.
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Re:Good for the US as well... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Good for the US as well... (Score:5, Informative)
And it's not just the US - There has been a measurable reduction in bot noise among many secessionist movements across the west, including Poland, Quebec, and Texas.
Re: Good for the US as well... (Score:2)
I've seen that repeated ad nauseam but I can't say I've noticed it. Cloudflare reported a drop in both traffic but that was apparently regular Yandex indexing bots.
So I wonder if it's just propaganda.
At least I won't be labeled a Russian bot for thinking so.
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Russia wants to make a mess of everyone else's elections. Both for their domestic audience - "look what a mess voting for someone other than Putin causes!" - as well as making things difficult for opposing nations. China does the same for the same reasons.
What pretext will puppet Trump invent now? (Score:5, Insightful)
Now Putin will call Trump and puppet Trump will demand stop attacks on data centers.
What will be the story?
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Given how quickly America came to disliking datacenters, seemingly as a real grassroots thing through hatred of techbros, hatred of higher energy prices to their own households, and hatred to water scarcity, seems like any complaint that Trump would make about it would simply lead to more backlash upon him.
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It's cute that you think he thinks that far ahead, or listens to anyone that does.
He doesn't give a shit - he knows he's a lame duck and there's nothing he can do about it. So he's going to try to get his beak wet at every chance he can, until kicked out to sea in early 2029 (hopefully before).
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You reap what you sow (Score:2)
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Re:You reap what you sow (Score:5, Insightful)
If Putin actually listened to his military commanders, he wouldn't have invaded Ukraine in the first place!
It's not just about listening. I highly doubt that anyone with access to Putin is telling him things that he doesn't want to hear, which is a more fundamental problem.
Re:You reap what you sow (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think anybody credible claimed, that attacks on Wildberries would destroy Russia, but these attacks did have a measurable effect on their economy. Hitting the economy with 1000 cuts was the main idea behind this and similar attacks, and it's ongoing.
Hitting the economy is a viable strategy, remember that imperial Germany had sizeable parts of France under occupation for 4 years, no part of Germany was occupied, but their economy eventually faltered in 1918.
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I don't think anybody credible claimed, that attacks on Wildberries would destroy Russia, but these attacks did have a measurable effect on their economy. Hitting the economy with 1000 cuts was the main idea behind this and similar attacks, and it's ongoing.
Actually, hitting the civilian economy was NOT the goal behind the Wildberries attacks, just a useful side effect. Wildberries was storing and distributing military equipment in those warehouses (stuff like body armor), which is the only reason they became a valid/legal military target.
Re: You reap what you sow (Score:5, Insightful)
If the world can not afford continuation of this war then they should be offering Ukraine all the help they can.
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Given that Russia can't refine crude or deliver fuel and now it's data centers are dropping like flies, they're the ones heading for the bronze age.
Sooner or later, the oligarchs will be showing Putin the window. He's making it hard to make a dishonest buck.
Re: You reap what you sow (Score:2)
Fuck you, Ivan. Putin and his orcs can fuck off immediately, you land stealing piece of shit.
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Yes, because Russia has been so dainty about not hitting civilian targets up until now.
Who the fuck are you trying to convince with this?
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Yes, because Russia has been so dainty about not hitting civilian targets up until now.
Who the fuck are you trying to convince with this?
For the most part, they're trying to convince themselves.
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Remember how Russia was defeated only a few weeks ago because Ukraine was blowing up the Russian version of Amazon? How'd that turn out?
I remember nothing of the sort. But I also don't pay attention to people saying things that are obvious horseshit.
Even if the actual Amazon was blown up, life wouldn't stop, and nobody but Amazon's insurers would be "defeated" - you are presenting a false premise or some other kind of bad-faith argument nonsense.
Re:it's all about sex (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, we can see by your post, that Yandex appears to be at least somewhat operational.
Re: it's all about sex (Score:3)
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Maybe Russia is as good at picking its disinformation targets as the US is at picking its bomb targets... outdated.
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in other news, just checked and yandex is working fine for me ...
Why are you under the impression that the story is that the yandex search engine was down completely?
clever not clever (Score:2)
make a wrong assumption, present it as a fact and then start a discussion about it.
All war is total war (Score:4, Insightful)
That they weren't prepared for "data center war" is preposterous. When you invade another country, you are betting everything you have. Data centers are on the table, as are refineries, shopping centers, residences, schools and pipelines. I am certain Putin knew this; he just didn't think it would matter that he bet every single building in Russia on victory.
And for what it's worth, when Russia surrenders they will still have many buildings still standing. But make no mistake: those buildings were placed upon on the war-betting table by Putin.
Republicans in USA should admit that, so far, all of them have put every person and atom of infrastructure in America on the table too. Iran, Venezuela, and Palestine have all been explicitly invited to destroy as much of America as they can/want. Fortunately for us, the invitation isn't likely to be accepted.
But your Republican House member has at least asked the Iranian government to bomb America, including its data centers, hospitals, sports stadiums, the White House, and your spouse's car. If they say otherwise, they're lying.
When you vote for war, as 2024 Republican voters did, you're saying that you're ok with losing everything and everyone. Ah, the carefree indiscretions of youth. Every Republican thinks he is both invincible and also has absolutely nothing to lose. Take it all away, and they won't care. There are no loved ones to protect nor wealth to preserve. Trump is right: fuck 'em while they're young, before they form any attachments.
Re:All war is total war (Score:5, Insightful)
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When Russia started this they were not expecting a war. They were confident that the Ukrainians would welcome them.
That's certainly what Putin said, but it's not clear why you would believe it when they went into Ukraine with military vehicles, not with a brass band and a parade, unless... have you suffered some major head injury recently?
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> When Russia started this they were not expecting a war.
Just don't mention the war (especially if you're in Russia).
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Re: All war is total war (Score:2)
They tend to lose their footing while trying to bring in a nice breeze.
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Good job, Comrade. Your rubles will be deposited just as soon as Yandex gets back up again... as long as Ukraine doesn't keep blowing data centers into scrap.
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Well, I do believe that the odds are that Ukraine will be defeated, but then I also believed that the odds were that North Vietnam would be defeated. So I'm clearly no expert in this area.
Re: All war is total war (Score:3)
If Putin keeps sending drones into Poland then NATO is going to send troops all right... Into Russia.
It's true that NATO is there to contain Russia. If only Russia wasn't a continual aggressor, it wouldn't be necessary.
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They then progressed to forcing Ukraine to the negotiating table, which took a few weeks. Ukraine would have had no choice but to capitulate until Boris Johnson told them NATO would use them as mercenaries against Russia and provide them with weapons and intel.
Been a long time since I've seen a Russian troll doll do the Boris NATO dance.
This is a classic Russian disinfo narrative that relied on taking an interview with Boris out of context, ignoring contradictory information from the interview itself and then filling in the gaps with abject nonsense.
That then led to the war between NATO and Russia that's been going on for the last four years and is approaching its end.
LOL classic fighting against NATO Russian cope for getting its teeth kicked in by Ukraine. The truth is NATO is watching on the sidelines laughing at the stupid Russians getting slaughtered in droves in pointless mea
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Been a long time since I've seen a Russian troll doll do the Boris NATO dance.
I guess Yandex's DR sites don't have the latest updates installed.
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Re: All war is total war (Score:2)
Ukraine was ruled from Russia for centuries before WW1. Russian civilization traces its history to Kiev a millennium ago. The roots are deep and intertwined. Enough so, for enough people, that the resentment can be ignored.
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That resentment has now been nurtured with immense amount of blood and will last as blistering hate for generations.
Re: All war is total war (Score:2)
You have that backwards. Russia was ruled by Ukraine for centuries.
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It's the midterms (Score:4, Interesting)
Ukraine is taking them offline for the election, which is brilliant. Several close races will probably go blue now
Remember, Putin was in charge of information warfare at the KGB. And we all know he's sitting on unredacted Epstein files.
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Russia heavily influences US elections via social media and since it benefits the Republican party they're allowed to do it.
Ukraine is taking them offline for the election, which is brilliant. Several close races will probably go blue now
Remember, Putin was in charge of information warfare at the KGB. And we all know he's sitting on unredacted Epstein files.
It's not just the US, all of Europe's far right parties are suffering, AFD in Germany, National Front in France, Reform/Restore in the UK. All of them seeing huge drops in social media engagement without the Russian bots. Hell, even the Daily Mail comments section is clearer without it and calling that a wretched hive of scum and villainy is to do a huge disservice to scum and villainy.
Hmm... this seems familiar (Score:4, Funny)
Russia Was Not Ready For the Data Center War It Started With Ukraine
So a country attacked another country w/o preparing for possible consequences? Where have I seen this before? /s
Everyone Loses (Score:2)
Same as it ever was. Soylent Green is people. Now in extra crispy
I was just saying the same thing today (Score:4, Interesting)
Pro-Kremlin bloggers are warning that Russia's centralized digital economy could collapse
While out working around the yard, this exact thought came to me. When you have a centralized economy, such as in Russia with Putin calling all the shots, any large scale interruption to any part of that centralization will have an outside effect. As this article relates, Yandex has its paws in everything. And what happens when Yandex goes down?
This entire invasion has been a fiasco on the Russian side from day one. I was truly astounded at how inept they were in the first month of their invasion, and that astounding has only increased over the past four years. A German officer wrote a book and toward the back of the book he outlined several things the Germans learned very quickly about Russian military doctrine. One of those items was that they would repeatedly throw men at the problem unitl either they succeeded or they exhausted their pool of men.
That was 80+ years ago and they still haven't changed. They learned nothing over the decades and this data center pummeling is another example of them not being able to think more than a day ahead.
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That was 80+ years ago and they still haven't changed. They learned nothing over the decades
Every time someone who knows something disagrees with Putin, they're defenestrated. This results in a lot of window-based loss of intelligence, and the rest learning not to offer any. This is not really a new mode of operation, it being cheaper to open a window than to pay for poison, but seems to have ticked up in recent decades.
Looking at the photos (Score:2)
Did they have any fire suppression in their datacenters? Or did the contractor take the money and just install some pipes?
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They would be lucky if they actually got the pipes. It's far more likely the contractor took the money, chipped off a little to the inspector, and did absolutely nothing at all.
FTFY (Score:3)
When Russia began attacking Ukrainian data centers and telecommunication infrastructure, it apparently failed to prepare for possible retaliation.
When Russia began attacking Ukraine... it apparently failed to prepare for possible retaliation.
FTFY. Based on how the Russians started whining when Ukraine had the nerve to shoot back.
Much deserved schadenfreude (Score:5, Insightful)
It is difficult to feel sorry about Russia's problems.
Delenda est Russia
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It is difficult to feel sorry about Russia's problems.
I am sorry the citizens have to live under Putin, does that count?
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I'm certainly sorry I have to live under Trump.
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Try being a citizen who also isn't a terrorist and both problems go away.
Try being a nation which isn't a terrorist, Ivan. Though I admit saying that as an American is somewhat ironic.
Nuland debates Mearsheimer (Score:2, Troll)
Trump - the gift that keeps on giving (to Putin) (Score:2)
Putin has to wake up smiling each day since November 2024. If Trump had lost the election, Russia probably would've lost this war by now... and Putin, his life.
Personally, I don't believe that Trump is an active Russian asset, controlled through blackmail or some other means. I think he's just an incredibly vain and stupid man who Putin can completely manipulate with ease. I mean, come on - how does a phone call that's supposed to be about pressing for information on that pneumonic plague death turn into "H
Re:Trump - the gift that keeps on giving (to Putin (Score:4, Interesting)
Personally, I don't believe that Trump is an active Russian asset, controlled through blackmail or some other means.
So did you miss the part where after Deutsche bank dropped Trump, his kids told us they were doing all their banking with Russia? Trump was broke, all of his properties were fully leveraged, then Putin rode in on a white horse (and no shirt) and saved his bacon.
Two words too many (Score:2)
"Russia Was Not Ready For the Data Center War It Started With Ukraine"
Delete the non-bolded words in the sentence above for a more accurate description of Russia's current position. They're being absolutely embarrassed by Ukraine. The war Putin confidently said would last for a couple of weeks is closing in on 5 years with no clear end in sight. Suck on that Vlad!
The Moscow Times (Score:3)
In Soviet^H^H^H^H^H^Hfascist Russia, there are no independent newspapers.
I felt a great disturbance in the force (Score:3)
As if millions of bots suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.
Am I the only one... (Score:3)
...who thinks that huge centralized data centers are a bad idea?
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