Yandex Automated Traffic Fell to 0.4% of Recent Peak

Automated requests from Yandex’s network fell to about 0.4% of their peak over the preceding two weeks after drone strikes disrupted the Russian technology company’s data centres, according to traffic data cited in reports. The figure measures activity classified as automated from Yandex’s network, not the number of Russian bots or their purpose. The reported low point followed attacks on facilities in Sasovo, Kaluga and the Vladimir region between October 8 and October 11. Yandex said the Sasovo facility was shut after a fire and that infrastructure at Kaluga was partly knocked out. The company said it was assessing damage and working to restore services. It also said its Vladimir data centre was shut following a drone attack; the shutdown was separately reported. The Sasovo site reportedly houses two of Yandex’s three AI supercomputers, but damage to the machines has not been confirmed. Yandex’s service-status reporting was cited as listing at least 84 services offline, with disruptions reported to cloud, music, voice-assistant, smart-home and video-conferencing services. The full operational impact on the company’s computing capacity has not been established.