Ukrainian Drones Hit Russian Finance Ministry Data Center Near Gorodets

Ukrainian drone strikes have damaged a Russian Ministry of Finance data center in the suburbs of Gorodets, the latest in a series of attacks on Russian data centers, according to Data Center Dynamics.

Strike hits government data center

The facility sits some 230 miles east of the Kremlin and over 600 miles from the frontlines. It is operated by the Russian Ministry of Finance and reportedly held several state registries, including the Federal Taxation Service tax database.

According to Data Center Dynamics, citing a Russian media outlet, the facility is one of two key data processing centers of the Federal Tax Service of Russia operating in a geo-distributed mode. DCD reported that damage to this facility could potentially affect the operation of state information systems of the Russian Federation.

Possible impact on services

The Russian finance ministry reportedly operates two other data centers, one at the Federal Data Processing Center in Dubna, Moscow Region, and another in Yerzovka, Volgograd Region. Losing a third of its data centers could have a major impact on government services that it provides.

A modern society’s reliance on digital services means that data centers are now critical infrastructure and have become major targets in conflict.

Wider conflict context

Ukraine has targeted Russian data centers multiple times since the start of October, which it started doing after Moscow escalated the conflict by striking Ukrainian data centers. Russia’s Yandex bot traffic collapsed after the Ukrainian drone strikes, but its disinformation bot network migrated to unaffected data centers to continue operating as normal.

Another recent instance of a civilian data center getting caught in a conflict was in the Middle East, after Iranian forces hit AWS sites in the UAE and Bahrain in response to the United States’ bombing campaign that began in February. This has led to disruptions to many digital services in the area, and Amazon advised many of its clients to move to other regions to avoid further disruptions.

Sources: Tom's Hardware