Russia: Hacker Booked Yandex Taxi to Create Traffic Jam in Moscow—Protest for Ukraine?

On what is supposedly a regular Thursday for Moscow, an access by an unknown threat actor booked several taxi cabs headed towards a single destination, leading to a massive traffic jam on a major avenue in Russia's capital. The destination of the booked rides from Yandex Taxi all headed to 'Hotel Ukrania' or Hotel Ukraine, with unknown reasons why it centered there.

Several reports claim that it may be a protest by the hackers for Ukraine, but nothing has been confirmed.

Russia Traffic Jam: Yandex Taxi Hack Led to a Single Destination

Twitter users reported on social media that a traffic jam occurred on Moscow's Kutuzovsky Prospekt avenue. This known road leads to a major hotel in the area called Hotel Ukrania. The reports claim that an unknown assailant hacked Yandex Taxi, one of Russia's major taxi services, and booked many cabs sent to the said location.

All booked rides went to Hotel Ukrania as per the dispatch sent to them, and a massive volume of taxis stayed at the location as requested by the company's systems. According to another tweet, the hack ordered all of the company's cabs to come to Hotel Ukrania and created a massive traffic jam in central Moscow, all staying in the said location.

The traffic lasted for up to three hours.

Hacker: Unknown Reasons for Hack, Protesting for Ukraine?

Several claims from online reports say that the hackers behind the attack on Yandex Taxi are sending a message of their disapproval of the Russia and Ukraine war that is a known current issue in the world. Additionally, users could deduce this as the taxi cabs were sent to a Hotel Ukrania in central Moscow.

Hacking May Lead to Catastrophic Events

The world relies heavily on technology and computers, a known fact for everyone in the 21st century as their lives revolve mostly on internet use and access to go forth their lives. Because of that, many hacks in the world lead to catastrophic events that compromise many people, as most are interconnected through systems that use the web.

One of the most common hacks present in the world today is phishing, and it aims to steal personal information by ingeniously asking for login credentials or other known password-stealing methods developed by threat actors. A massive campaign geared towards this action is selling significantly on online forums, with the capabilities to access systems like Binance, Telegram, and more.

On the other hand, there are still those that put elbow grease into their ways to access systems by getting into company systems through malware or computer viruses, with OpenSea's NFT platform being one of the targeted companies.

Hacking has many reasons behind the act that these individuals or groups commit, and while most of them intend to steal information for personal gain, some use it to send messages or create protests against massive entities. The recent Yandex Taxi incident remains unknown for the reasons behind it, but it indeed made an impact on Moscow's traffic last Thursday.

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Written by Isaiah Richard