Russian Statistics Agency Cyberattack Leads to Postponement of Economic Reports and Leak of Alleged Casualty Figures
Russia’s state statistics agency, Rosstat, has acknowledged a cyberattack that forced it to postpone the release of key economic reports by a week while it works to restore its infrastructure. The attack caused problems in transmitting primary data for several surveys, leading to an extended deadline for data submission. The reports, originally due last Friday, were delayed, with two weekly price reports being postponed multiple times before their eventual release. The 'Belarusian Cyber-Partisans,' a group known for hacktivism against the regime of Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus, claimed responsibility for the attack. They assert that they extracted 23 terabytes of data from Rosstat by November 1. The group, along with the pro-Ukrainian group 'Silent Crow,' claims to have obtained government figures on Russian casualties in the war against Ukraine, alleging that over 450,000 Russians have died. Rosstat, however, stated there was no evidence of data compromise or extraction.
