Cyber Incident Victim: Moscow International Portal
Date:
Mar 2022
Location:
Russia
Summary
Anonymous hacktivists executed DDoS attacks against Russian government websites, including the Moscow International Portal, as part of Operation Russia, causing prolonged outages that rendered the targeted services unreachable for hours. The attacks, which also impacted the Federal Security Service, Stock Exchange, Ministry of Sport, and Analytical Center, were a retaliatory response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, aligning with the collective's broader campaign against critical national infrastructure.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 2 motives | 1 technique |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On March 15, 2022, at approximately 12:12 PM GMT, the hacktivist collective Anonymous executed distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against multiple Russian government-affiliated websites as part of their ongoing OpRussia campaign. The Moscow International Portal (moscow.ru) was among five high-profile targets, alongside the Federal Security Service (fsb.gov.ru), Russian Stock Exchange (moex.com), Ministry of Sport (minsport.gov.ru), and Analytical Center for the Government (ac.gov.ru). These coordinated attacks overwhelmed the websites with excessive traffic, rendering them inaccessible to users. By 7:00 PM GMT—nearly seven hours post-attack—all targeted sites remained offline, indicating sustained disruption to critical digital services. The Moscow International Portal's outage impeded public access to municipal information and services typically hosted on the platform. No data breach or defacement was reported, with impact confined to service availability.
This incident occurred within a broader pattern of cyber operations against Russian infrastructure following the country's February 24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Anonymous publicly claimed responsibility, aligning the attacks with their support for Ukraine. The collective had previously targeted Russian surveillance systems, state media, and research institutions, though the March 15 operation marked a significant escalation against core government portals. Restoration timelines for moscow.ru and other affected sites were not disclosed in available reporting. The attacks demonstrated Anonymous' capacity to disrupt essential civilian-facing platforms, though no permanent damage or data compromise was documented for the Moscow International Portal specifically. Russian authorities did not issue public statements regarding incident response or mitigation measures according to the source material.