Yandex Under Fire: Drones Cripple Data Center

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Yandex Under Fire: Drones Cripple Data Center.

Ukrainian drones have hit a data center of the Russian tech and AI conglomerate Yandex, according to a report by Spiegel. The attack triggered a fire at the facility.

The attack triggered a fire at a Yandex data center.

If you use Yandex services in Russia – that is, Search, Maps, Mail, or Taxi – this attack can affect you directly. Yandex is essentially the country's Google, except that behind it stands its own corporation with its own cloud and its own AI research.

What is known about the attack so far

The Spiegel writes, citing Ukrainian information, that drones deliberately targeted Yandex infrastructure. A fire broke out in the data center. How big the damage is, which services are exactly affected, and whether there are any injuries – the brief report doesn't say.

Yandex – More Than a Search Engine

According to an overview on English Wikipedia, Yandex holds an estimated market share of around 72 percent in web search in Russia. In addition, there are map services, its own browser, email, a translator, and taxi and delivery services. If a data center of this caliber goes down, a large portion of Russia's everyday internet stumbles at the same time – far more than just a few search results.

What remains open for now

The condition of the affected servers and the availability of Yandex services was initially unknown. The brief report also does not answer whether the strike was part of a broader drone offensive against targets in Russia.