We have more details on the mass disruption to the Telegram and WhatsApp messaging apps in Russia we reported earlier (see 12.57pm post).
Moscow’s state communications monitoring service said the problems were caused by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.
The service said the attack had been repelled and the messaging networks were working normally again.
Local media said other sites such as Wikipedia, Skype and the social media platform Discord had also been affected.
“The disruption is related to a DDoS attack on Russian
telecom operators,” the service said, without
elaborating on who might have been responsible.
Russia began to block access to Telegram in 2018, a move which had little effect on the availability of the app there.
WhatsApp’s parent company Meta was branded an “extremist” organisation by Moscow in 2022 and its other services such as Facebook and Instagram are now banned in Russia – though they can still be accessed via virtual private networks (VPNs).
