The Ukrainian IT Army is disrupting the distribution of alcohol in Russia

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Hacktivists operating on the Ukraine side have focused their DDoS attacks on a portal that is considered crucial for the distribution of alcoholic beverages in Russia.

DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks are collective efforts to overwhelm servers with large volumes of junk traffic and bogus requests, rendering them unable to serve legitimate visitors.

According to various Russian media reports, several vodka producers and distributors claim that they are unable to access the EGAIS (ЕГАИС) portal as required by government regulations.

The role of the EGAIS platform in the market (shtrih-m.ru)
Central role of EGAIS in the market (shtrih-m.ru)

As a result, the transportation and distribution of alcoholic beverages to retail outlets have been hit hard in recent days, raising the risk of real shortages on shelves.

A person who works in the field told Vedomosti that “due to a large-scale failure, factories cannot accept tanks with alcohol, and customers, shops and distributors, cannot receive finished products that have already been delivered to them.”

Yesterday many factories decided to stop shipments to warehouses altogether and subsequently cut their production pace as they are overwhelmed with undelivered products and cannot take any more.

The IT Army of Ukraine includes EGAIS

As of this writing, the EGAIS portal remains out of range, so we can only assume that the DDoS attack is continuing.

Bleeping Computer has found the associated websites listed as targets on the Telegram channel of the Ukrainian IT Army, so it is very likely that they are behind these attacks.

Posts on Telegram are intended to help coordinate DDoS activities that are launched independently of isolated actors using tools like Liberator.

EGAIS sites listed on the IT Army channel
EGAIS sites listed on the IT Army channel

The Ukrainian IT Army is a special type of cyber force that recruits volunteers from around the world, uniting them under the common goal of launching retaliatory cyber attacks against key Russian entities.

The formation of this illegal task force was announced by Ukrainian government officials in February 2022 and has been active on the cyber frontlines ever since.

Attacks on Russian supply chains

This is not the first attack targeting Russia’s internal product supply chains, with the aim of causing disruptions and even shortages.

Last March, Moscow-based meat producer and distributor Miratorg announced news of a cyberattack that encrypted its IT systems, with the aim of sabotaging its operations.

The point of compromise was another state information system, VetIS, used by companies engaged in the veterinary field.

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