Hackers caused a major traffic jam in Moscow by exploiting a common ride-hailing app.

The traffic jam took place in the Fili region of Western Moscow on Thursday the first of September.

Hackers used popular Russian ride-hailing app Yandex Taxi to send dozens of taxis to a specific address in the neighbourhood at the same time.

This backed up traffic heading towards Kutuzovsky Prospekt, a major east-west road in Moscow and already a busy street. Motorists in Moscow, already one of the most congested cities in the world, complained, posting videos of taxis blocking traffic.

“On the morning of September 1, Yandex Taxi encountered an attempt by attackers to disrupt the service — several dozen drivers received bulk orders to the Fili region,” Yandex Taxi’s press service said.

It added that the attack lasted less than an hour, and that the company has since updated and improved its algorithm for detecting and preventing such attacks to prevent similar incidents.

‼️#Moscow had a stressful day yesterday. The largest taxi service in Russia ‘Yandex Taxi’ was hacked by the #Anonymous collective. A traffic jam took place in the center of Moscow when dozens of taxi were sent by the hackers to the address on Kutuzovsky Prospekt. #OpRussia pic.twitter.com/6fp1hp0f7r

— Anonymous TV 🇺🇦 (@YourAnonTV) September 2, 2022

Yandex Taxi is owned by Russian IT services giant Yandex. One of the company’s founders is currently under EU sanctions over claims the company deranks and removes content promoting the Russian invasion of Ukraine is an act of aggression.

While Yandex Taxi has not confirmed who orchestrated the disruption, notorious hacker collective Anonymous has claimed responsibility, adding that it worked alongside the IT Army of Ukraine.

According to a statement from the group made to Hackread, they breached the Yandex app to create multiple fake orders to send multiple drivers to the same place.

They also claimed that the traffic jam lasted for three hours.

Recommended

• How can we promote ethics in Scottish tech education?
• DataVita appointment to help push into international markets
• Trojan Energy secures £9m to scale operations

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the two countries have become a hotbed of cyberactivity. In the first month of the attack, research from Atlas VPN found that 89% of cyber-attacks worldwide are targeting Russia and Ukraine.

One single day recorded a total of 5 billion attacks launched on Russia.

In the wake of the invasion, Anonymous began performing cyber-attacks against Russia. These were designed to disrupt operations in the country and spread news and information against the war to counter Russian propaganda.

Among its attacks disabling Russian Government websites, bringing down Russian state news services, leaking emails and taking down the web portal of pro-Russian hacker group Killnet.

Get the latest news from DIGIT direct to your inbox

Our newsletter covers the latest technology and IT news from Scotland and beyond, as well as in-depth features and exclusive interviews with leading figures and rising stars.

To subscribe, click here.