RuTube, the Russian equivalent of YouTube, was targeted by a massive cyberattack on May 9, 2022. More than 24 hours later, the platform is still inaccessible and technical teams are working hard to restore services. According to RuTube officials, this is the worst cyberattack in the history of the site.
On May 9, 2022, the Russian people celebrated the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. On this occasion, the Russian President gave a televised address to remind his people of the importance of “the special operation in Ukraine”especially for “denazify” the country. Only, hackers decided to spoil the intervention of the head of the Kremlin thanks to several cyberattacks.
Yesterday, hackers hijacked Russian TV channels during Vladimir Putin’s speech and the Russian army parade. The information in the programming pages has been changed to display anti-war messages. However, these were not the only targets of hackers. In effect, RuTube, the Russian equivalent of YouTube, has been the victim of a major cyberattack.
RuTube, the Russian YouTube, is still down
On his page, the following message is displayed: “The website has been attacked. The situation is currently under control. User data has been saved”. More than 24 hours after the start of the attack, the video platform is still out of service, whether on the web or on its Android version. To have an update on the situation, you will have to go to the Telegram page of RuTube. Here’s what you can read there so far:
“APTs (Sophisticated Persistence Threat) are known to be planned and – above all – expensive attacks. Someone really wanted to stop RuTube from showing the Victory Day parade and celebratory fireworks. It is not a sin to remember the battles we have won. The battle for RuTube continues”.
According to the technical teams, it will take many more hours to restore services. They want to be reassuring, however, by specifying that the source code of the platform has been spared, contrary to what several rumors claimed. Even if the cyberattack has not yet been claimed, the Ukrainian Minister of Digital took the opportunity to send a small peak on Telegram: “The deprogramming continues. This is not a cyberattack, but a special operation aimed at improving your IT infrastructure”.
As a reminder, many Russian citizens want to bypass the digital iron curtain established by the Kremlin. To continue to browse freely on the internet and to consult free information, Russians are resorting en masse to VPNs, as revealed by an article from the Washington Post.
Source : Bleeding Computer
