Ukraine Claims Attack on Russian Center for Space Hydrometeorology

Pro-Ukraine hackers have reportedly breached a Russian scientific research center, Ukraine's defense intelligence directorate (GUR) said. Ukrainian hacktivists claimed destruction of a critical state-run meterology institute essential to Russia's aerospace industry and military.

While there is no independent confirmation of the damage to the supercomputers, it is likely the HVAC shutdown plus the destruction of data during war-time would have rendered such destruction permanent as trade embargoes prevent ordering new parts, system repair, and restoration.

According to GUR’s report on Wednesday, the hacker group called “BO Team” attacked the and destroyed its database and valuable equipment.

Planeta is a Russian state enterprise that receives and processes data from 11 domestic and 23 foreign Earth observation satellites, according to its website. This data is then used by other Russian state entities.

Ukraine's intelligence claimed that hackers attacked the eastern branch of the organization, described as “the largest of the three.” The agency hasn’t responded to a request for a comment to confirm the attack.

Estimated Cost

Disabled 280 servers and Cray supercomputers, shut down HVAC and emergency power distribution, deleted 2 PB of scientific data and research

Threat Source

Impacts

OT IT