Moscow Metro website displays appeal from recently hacked Ukrainian Railways

The Moscow subway's website became unavailable on March 31, displaying only a banner with a message on the technical failure from recently hacked Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia).

Russian users on the crash detection service Downdetector.su have reported malfunctions with both the Moscow Metro app and the mosmetro.ru website.

A large-scale cyberattack hit Ukrainian Railways' computer networks on March 23, causing the website and app to fail and making it impossible to purchase tickets online. The state-owned rail operator's press service blamed "the enemy" for the attack.‌‌‌‌

Earlier on March 31, the Moscow Metro website displayed the same banner as the one on Ukrainian Railways' website during its technical failure. As of the moment of publication, the website is not accessible.

The Moscow transport department wrote on its Telegram channel that due to technical maintenance, users may encounter temporary problems accessing personal accounts in the Moscow Metro application.

According to the transport department, specialists are working to resolve the technical issues, and passengers can still replenish their "Troika" Moscow transport cards at ticket offices and terminals throughout metro stations.

Roskomnadzor, the Russian information agency, confirmed in a comment to the Russian media outlet Rusbase that there was a spike in problem reports with the Moscow Metro app on March 31 but did not specify the causes of the technical failure.

According to Downdetector.su, a crash detection service, up to 40,000 users have noticed malfunctions in the Moscow Metro service over the past day.

Users from Russia complained that "the site is hacked," "the app does not load," "I cannot enter my personal account," and "the section with cards doesn't show, making it impossible to pay."

On March 27, Ukrainian Railways announced a partial restoration of online ticketing services after "89 hours of non-stop work."

The Ukrainian Railways press service told the Kyiv Independent that despite the attack, 96% of trains were running on schedule, although passengers faced hours-long lines at ticket offices and staff worked in emergency mode to restore the system.