Yandex
Standstill in Russia: Hackers cause huge taxi traffic jams in Moscow
Last week there was a gigantic traffic jam in Moscow. (icon picture)
© TASS / Kirill Kukhmar / Picture Alliance
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the hacker collective “Anonymous” has opposed Russia. Last week it was possible to paralyze parts of Moscow – with taxis.
The war in Ukraine is also taking place online. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, numerous hackers have taken sides and attempted to digitally wreak havoc on their opponents. The hacker collective “Anonymous” has proven to be particularly active, and its actions have been making headlines for months. Last week, network activists managed to cause a gigantic traffic jam in the Russian capital Moscow – right in front of the luxury temple “Radisson Collection Hotel”, also known as “Hotel Ukraina”.
Order taxis via app to the same address
In order to cause the traffic jam, strangers had hacked the taxi service of “Yandex”, the Russian equivalent of “Uber”, “Freenow” or “Lyft”. The attackers ordered as many vehicles as possible to the same address, so that there was inevitably a traffic jam there. Not knowing anything about the attack, the taxi drivers drove blindly into the trap.
A video shows a traffic jam hundreds of meters long, which the police had to intervene to clear from a certain point in time. Some of those affected said they were stuck in traffic for up to three hours. Kutuzov Prospect, a main street with eight to ten lanes, was completely closed for up to 40 minutes.
In a statement to Forbes.ru, a spokesman for Yandex said: “In the morning of September 1, at ‘Yandex Taxi’ there was an attempt by attackers to disrupt the service – several dozen drivers received bulk orders to the Fili region .” It promised that “the algorithm used to detect and prevent such attacks has already been improved to prevent similar incidents in the future.”
“Anonymous” claimed responsibility for the hack
It was initially unclear who or what had caused the traffic jam. Until the hacker group “Anonymous” confessed to it a day later and wrote: “#Moscow had a stressful day yesterday. The largest taxi service in Russia ‘Yandex Taxi’ was hacked by the collective #Anonymous. In the center of Moscow there was a traffic jam , when the hackers dispatched dozens of taxis to the address on Kutuzovsky Prospekt. #OpRussia.”
Under the hashtag #OpRussia, the hackers collect a variety of attacks against Russia, including the publication of secret company data, the shutdown of websites and online services, and the temporary takeover of Russian TV and radio stations.
Sources: forbesTwitter