Cyberattack Wipes Cloud Data at Major Russian Hosting Provider Beget

A major Russian web hosting provider is trying to recover its services after a cyberattack wiped out data across its cloud infrastructure and disrupted hundreds of websites.

Beget, which is one of Russia’s largest domain registrars and hosting companies, stated on Wednesday that it started bringing some servers back online after the attack happened overnight on Sunday. The company noted that getting everything running again will take a lot of time because engineers must check more than 1,000 servers by hand.

The attackers broke into systems that manage the company's network and ran scripts designed to delete data. The damage hit Beget's cloud setup the hardest, wiping out virtual private servers, cloud storage, and Kubernetes services. The company lost all binary backups for its virtual servers, though file-level backups survived and might help recover some information. Beget said it is not giving up and continues looking for ways to get the lost data back.

The incident happened while Russian digital infrastructure companies are dealing with a rising wave of cyberattacks and drone strikes. Earlier, hackers exploited a software flaw at another Russian hosting provider, FirstVDS, to steal sensitive customer data like passwords and cryptocurrency wallets. At the same time, Ukrainian drones hit three data centers run by Russian tech giant Yandex, taking two facilities offline, while separate drone strikes targeted Sberbank and social media platform VK.

Beget reported that almost all websites on its shared hosting setup can likely be recovered, but the process is slow because every server needs an individual check. By Wednesday, some websites started working again as engineers cleared out malicious files and checked data safety, while customer-managed dedicated servers were already restored. The outages affected websites across Russia used by businesses, government agencies, and research groups, including the Naryan-Mar city administration website and the Chestny Znak product labeling system. The Russian Academy of Sciences also lost access to its solar astronomy website because of domain registrar problems, while local media noted that small and medium-sized online stores took the heaviest hit.

Founded in 2007, Beget is a major force in Russia’s internet infrastructure and ranked as the second-largest registrar for .RU domains as of October, managing about 540,700 domains. The company found no proof that attackers tried to download or change customer information, but it still advised clients to change passwords and access keys that might have been stored on the broken systems. Beget has not explained how the intruders broke into its network, citing security concerns and an ongoing investigation, and no hacking group has claimed responsibility. The firm also warned customers that the attack might count as a force majeure event under Russian law, which would temporarily excuse it from certain contract duties.

Earlier this year, the European Union placed sanctions on Beget and one of its owners. The EU stated that the company provided digital infrastructure and domain services to Russian-backed authorities in occupied Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk, as well as to defense groups supporting the war in Ukraine.

Summary

A major cyberattack destroyed cloud data and backups at Beget, one of Russia's largest hosting providers, disrupting hundreds of government and business websites. The incident highlights growing security pressures on Russian digital infrastructure amid ongoing conflict and regional cyberattacks.