Russia’s digital Achilles’ heel? How Ukraine data centre strikes disrupt daily life

Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian data centres have disrupted banking, taxi services, food deliveries and digital access to homes, exposing the vulnerability of services used by millions of Russians. This comes as Kyiv expands its campaign against Moscow’s technology infrastructure.The attacks, carried out over several days in October, targeted data centres operated by Yandex, Russia’s largest technology company, followed by a facility owned by Sberbank, the country’s largest bank. A data centre belonging to technology group VK was also reportedly targeted.Yandex, often described as “Russia’s Google”, provides search, email, navigation, music, ride-hailing, food delivery, cloud computing and digital payment services.Connectivity to the Yandex Cloud platform fell to around 30 per cent of normal levels following the October 8-11 strikes, The Moscow times reported, quoting internet monitoring group NetBlocks.Disruptions also affected third-party businesses that depend on its infrastructure, with users reporting problems accessing files, ordering taxis and entering residential buildings after…