Russian national airline Aeroflot was forced to cancel more than 40 flights on Monday following what it described as a major failure in its information systems. While the company gave no timeline for resolution, a hacking group known as Silent Crow has claimed responsibility for what it called a devastating cyberattack.
Silent Crow said it collaborated with the Belarusian hacktivist group Cyberpartisans BY in the operation, citing Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine as the motive. The group claimed to have spent a year infiltrating Aeroflot’s networks, allegedly destroying 7,000 servers and compromising personal computers used by airline staff, including senior management.
Aeroflot acknowledged the system outage but did not confirm the cause or the extent of the damage. The airline said that specialists are currently working to minimize the impact on the flight schedule and to restore normal service operations.
Meanwhile, Russian media outlets reported chaotic scenes at airports, with long queues forming and passengers struggling to leave terminals. The disruptions mark a rare case of cyber-induced flight cancellations in Russia, where past delays have typically stemmed from drone-related airport closures since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Silent Crow also threatened to release the personal data of ‘all Russians who have ever flown Aeroflot,’ though no data breach has yet been confirmed.
Despite international sanctions severely limiting its travel and routes, Aeroflot remains one of the world's top 20 airlines by passenger volume.