Cyberattacks Paralyze Major Russian Restaurant Chains The Moscow Times

pA wave of coordinated cyberattacks has paralyzed the digital systems of several major Russian restaurant chains and food service providers the Vedomosti business daily reportedppThe attacks which began on July 18 targeted networks run by automation provider iiko and its hosting partner ESTT Restaurant chains including McDonalds successor Vkusno i Tochka coffee chain Cofix Sushi Master and more saw their operations disruptedppThe attackers bombarded servers with distributed denialofservice DDoS traffic for five consecutive days overwhelming systems and rendering mobile apps and websites intermittently inaccessibleppOn the day the attacks began Vkusno i Tochka warned customers about processing delays attributing the issue to failures at its hosting provider Services were briefly restored before another major attack hit on MondayppIiko which supports digital infrastructure for many restaurants confirmed that a 12hour DDoS attack affected its data centers on July 18 followed by another the next day The company said no customer data was compromised but acknowledged disruptions to internal communicationsppOne iiko client the sushi chain Mnogo Lososya reported that it was unable to process kitchen orders for nearly three daysppAn iiko spokesperson told Vedomosti that all services had since been restored and that affected clients had received compensationppNikita Tsaplin CEO of Russian cloud provider RUVDS told Vedomosti that up to 3500 ESTT clients may have been affected He noted a significant uptick in digital attacks in 2025 with incidents up by onethird compared to the same period in 2024 and attack volumes peaking at 17 terabits per secondppDigital investigator Igor Bederov suggested the attacks may have been orchestrated by business rivals pointing out the commercial damage caused by lost revenue broken payment systems and decreased customer loyaltyppEven temporary downtime weakens client trust and hurts search engine visibility Bederov told VedomostippOn July 17 just before the restaurant attacks began vodka producer Novabev Group which owns the Beluga and Belenkaya brands reported a largescale DDoS attack that halted shipments for several daysppIts retail arm Vinlab suffered weeklong disruptions across its network By Tuesday more than 100 of its stores had resumed operationsppMikhail Burmistrov CEO of InfolineAnalytics estimated that the downtime may have cost Vinlab roughly 08 of its quarterly revenue or 170 million rubles 22 millionppA Message from The Moscow TimesppDear readersppWe are facing unprecedented challenges Russias Prosecutor Generals Office has designated The Moscow Times as an undesirable organization criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a foreign agentppThese actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia The authorities claim our work discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership We see things differently we strive to provide accurate unbiased reporting on RussiappWe the journalists of The Moscow Times refuse to be silenced But to continue our work we need your helpppYour support no matter how small makes a world of difference If you can please support us monthly starting from just 2 Its quick to set up and every contribution makes a significant impactppBy supporting The Moscow Times youre defending open independent journalism in the face of repression Thank you for standing with usp