Aeroflot undergoes cyber assault, with Ukrainian hackers asserting accountability - AeroFlight's digital infrastructure was targeted by Ukrainian cyber criminals, as they confessed to the cyber assault.
A significant cyberattack on July 28, 2025, targeted Russian airline Aeroflot, causing operational disruptions and estimated financial losses of around $2.9 million. The attack, allegedly carried out by Ukrainian and Belarusian hacker groups Silent Crow and Cyber Partisans, forced Aeroflot to cancel more than 100 flights.
The hackers claim to have spent about a year infiltrating Aeroflot's IT network, eventually compromising and destroying approximately 7,000 servers connected to the airline’s internal systems. Silent Crow, a relatively new pro-Ukrainian hacker group, declared on Telegram that they destroyed Aeroflot’s IT infrastructure, stole 20 terabytes of data, including customer and internal data such as audio recordings of phone calls and surveillance data on employees.
The ransomware or ransom demands were not mentioned, and the attack appears politically motivated, intended as a "strategic blow" against a flagship Russian state enterprise. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has launched a criminal investigation and is overseeing measures in response to the incident, confirming the cyberattack caused the failure in Aeroflot’s information systems.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the situation as "quite alarming" and warned that cyber threats remain a constant risk for major service providers. The Russian cybersecurity agency, as reported by RIA Novosti, has not confirmed the data leak. The hackers have announced their intent to publish personal data of all Russians who have flown with Aeroflot.
Despite the attack, Aeroflot has been restoring its operations, reporting that it managed to operate roughly 80-93% of its flights within a day after the attack, although flight cancellations persisted for some time afterward.
This cyberattack is one of the most severe cyber incidents targeting a major Russian state asset in 2025, attributed to politically motivated Ukrainian and Belarusian hacker groups aiming to disrupt Russia’s aviation sector amidst the ongoing conflict context. Ukraine and its allies have long accused Russia of state-sponsored cyber warfare, and Europol announced this month that they had dismantled a pro-Russian hacker group responsible for thousands of online attacks against Ukraine and its allies. The Kremlin has expressed concern about the incident, with Dmitry Peskov stating that they will clarify the information and await a corresponding explanation.
- The Russian Prosecutor General's Office is investigating a cyber attack on Russian international airline Aeroflot, which was allegedly carried out by Ukrainian and Belarusian hacker groups, Silent Crow and Cyber Partisans.
- The cyberattack on Aeroflot, classified under the categories of crime-and-justice and general-news, resulted in operational disruptions, server compromises, data theft, and financial losses, highlighting the ongoing risks and challenges in the realm of cybersecurity and technology.
