Hackers claim theft of 23 TB of Rosstat data, including Russian military losses

Hacker collectives Silent Crow and the Belarusian group «Кіберпартизани» (Cyberpartisans) claimed a successful attack on the information infrastructure of the Federal State Statistics Service of Russia (Rosstat). According to them, the attackers managed to steal 23 terabytes of data, which, the hackers claim, includes statistics on Russian military losses in the full-scale war against Ukraine.

Scale of system compromise

Representatives of Silent Crow reported that approximately 25,000 computers and servers came under their control. These devices belong to the central office of Rosstat, its regional subdivisions, as well as the Main Interregional Centre for Processing and Dissemination of Statistical Information.

The hackers claim to have gained access to the electronic document management system, databases containing statistical, economic and personal information, as well as archives of population census data.

Reaction of the Russian agency

On the night of Sunday, 1 November, messages from cybercriminals appeared on the official Rosstat website. The text was posted both in the federal section and on the pages of regional offices. One of the notes was written in Belarusian with the words: «Нікому не уникнути відповідальності» (No one can escape responsibility).

An official representative of Rosstat confirmed that targeted cyberattacks were carried out on the agency's information resources from 29 October to 1 November. However, the service emphasises that the infrastructure operated in normal mode, and monitoring systems promptly alerted about suspicious activity.

The agency denies that the databases were compromised and states that no leak of information protected by law has been detected. The website's operation is promised to be restored in the near future.

Context and previous incidents

At present, no independent source has confirmed that the hackers actually possess as much data as they claim. It is worth noting that previously Rosstat restricted public access to part of the statistics on causes of death, which journalists and demographers used for indirect estimation of Russian army losses.

These same cyber groups previously announced an attack on the airline "Aeroflot", after which the airline cancelled dozens of flights.

Previously, there were also reports of a possible large-scale hacker attack on the Ukrainian supermarket chain ATB. The attackers claimed to have stolen data of 7.9 million customers, over 127,000 employees, as well as information about orders and suppliers. For the non-disclosure of this data, the hackers demanded $400,000 in cryptocurrency and threatened to publish the stolen data. ATB has not officially confirmed either the fact of the leak or its claimed scale.