On Thursday, hackers breached a Russian taxi app and sent dozens of drivers to the same location, causing a massive traffic jam.
Yandex Taxi, a Russian taxi app, confirmed to Forbes.ru that it was targeted by hackers who caused a traffic jam that left drivers stuck for nearly an hour on Moscow’s Kutuzovsky Prospekt, a major road that leads to the capital city’s center.
“On the morning of September 1, Yandex Taxi encountered an attempt by attackers to disrupt the service – several dozen drivers received bulk orders to the Fili region,” Yandex Taxi said in a statement.
The Twitter account “runews” posted video of the traffic jam.
“Someone hacked #YandexTaxi and ordered all available taxis to Kutuzov Prospect in Moscow. Now there is a huge traffic jam with taxis,” the user tweeted. “It‘s like James Bond movie.”
Yandex said that the company “immediately stopped attempts to artificially” order taxis, but not before the traffic jam piled up.
According to the Daily Mail, no one has claimed responsibility for the hack.
The cyberattack comes just days after hackers broke into dozens of surveillance cameras in Russia and Russian-occupied territories in order to play pro-Ukrainian music through the cameras’ speakers in honor of Ukraine’s Independence Day.
“Today, to celebrate Ukraine’s Independence Day, dozens of IP cameras with speaker outputs have been hacked to play patriotic music in Russia as well as occupied Crimea and Donbas,” the Twitter account ItsArtoir tweeted.
Last month, a report written by a Russian defector who fought in the Russia-Ukraine conflict revealed that Russian troops are shooting themselves in the leg to get out of the nation’s war with Ukraine.
Pavel Filatyev, 33, wrote in a 141-page memoir titled “ZOV” that Russian troops are suffering from hunger amid the chaos and destruction, The Guardian first reported. As a result, soldiers are looking to escape the conflict by any means necessary – even if they have to deliberately shoot themselves to get out.
