On April 3, a large-scale failure occurred in RuNet. Users primarily complained about the operation of banking applications and services. For several hours, they were unable to transfer money, withdraw cash, or pay for purchases with cards. Malfunctions in the operation of the Fast Propulsion System (FPS) were also recorded. Experts in the field of cybersecurity believe that the cause of the problems may be recent attempts by the authorities to restrict certain services in the country – for example, Telegram and unblocking tools. Medusa says this is known.
Judging by the data of the services Downdetector and “Failure.rf”The number of complaints about the operation of banking applications began to rise sharply at around 10:15 Moscow time. The problem affected customers of Sberbank, VTB, Alfa Bank, T-Bank, Gazprombank and others. Fast payment system also It didn’t work.
Telegram channel “Beware of the news” maleThis information about the failure was confirmed by residents of Moscow and Kaliningrad. However, according to statistics from websites that collect complaints, the problem has affected many other regions across the country. For example, failures were recorded in the Krasnodar Territory and the Novosibirsk Region.
Users cannot log into their personal accounts, transfer money, or simply pay for purchases using cards. In the latter case, the situation was aggravated by the non-functioning of banking terminals in stores. C News too malethat ATMs stopped working in many areas of the country, and for this reason people were unable to withdraw money.
Fontanka reader He saidShe tried to pay for the purchase with two cards in a store in St. Petersburg, but neither of them worked. “Then the seller sheepishly asked if there was any money. She added that it was not about my cards, it was about the Internet. Surprisingly, the T-bank mobile bank opened for me this time,” the publication quoted the interviewer as saying, adding that the saleswoman was still unable to display the QR code on the terminal.
The problems also affected the Moscow metro and commuter trains. Passengers were unable to use bank cards to pass through the turnstiles. To avoid crowding, metro staff started misses them for free.
“Speer” representatives confirmed that some users encountered problems using the bank’s services. The message corresponding to them published Including it in your telegram channel. In about an hour the bank I mentionedAll systems have been restored. The cause of the failure was not determined.
The press service of VTB Fontanka told that at the time of the failure all systems were working normally. T-Bank made a similar comment and added that problems could arise “in the acquisition network or ATMs of other banks.” But they stressed that this was happening “for reasons unrelated to TBank’s work.”
SBP Telegram channel too booksThe payment system is working normally. They linked slowdowns in transaction processing to failure on the part of participating banks. In total, problems with access to various banking services in Russia lasted about three hours.
Experts have no doubt that the failure was Roskomnadzor’s fault
Telegram channel Mash booksThe likely cause of the failure was “blocking of IP addresses used to operate the banking infrastructure.” Two sources in the field of cybersecurity agree with this version and with whom to speak Forbes.
While preparing this text, the link to the Forbes article became inactive.
One of the publication’s interlocutors noted that the problem may be caused by the work with which Roskomnadzor monitors Internet traffic and restricts access to sites blocked in the country. Another expert noted that TSPUs may not be able to handle “many blocking and crash rules under load.”
The technical expert is more careful in assessing the situation. “Failures in the operation of terminals and internal systems are most likely to occur due to the fact that the equipment cannot communicate with its servers. This, in turn, can occur either due to malfunctions or obstructions,” he said in a comment to Forbes magazine.
The expert admitted that such a large-scale failure could be a consequence of the current ban in Russia, because due to the large number of restrictions, “network connectivity is deteriorating all the time.” But he emphasized that it is very difficult to draw any conclusions without an inside look.
Neither the Ministry of Digital Development nor Roskomnadzor, which the newspaper contacted for comments, had responded to requests at the time of publication of the text.
In mid-March, journalists were really into it booksThe traffic filtering tools are overloaded and cannot handle the current restrictions. Currently, RKN is actively blocking Telegram, and is also fighting various services to bypass this ban. This not only leads to regular crashes in RuNet, but also leads to the fact that some services (for example, WhatsApp) become available without VPN for a short time.
However, representatives of VPN services operating in Russia doubt that RKN is running out of resources. “Any box has bandwidth, and for a particular operator, or a particular node, you can install a more powerful box,” Paper VPN experts noted in a comment to Meduza. — That is, we are talking about rebalancing, purchasing resources, transferring them, etc. Where all this will end seems doubtful.
“So far, the trend shows the opposite: Roskomnadzor’s resources are increasing from year to year,” BlancVPN representatives agree. However, this does not yet help to avoid periodic problems with access to services that are extremely important for Russians.
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