Massive Russian Internet outage reportedly caused by ‘software issues’

The massive Internet outage that took place across Russia on January 30 was caused by issues with the software used to create encryption keys, reads a statement on the website of the .RU/.RF Coordination Center, which administers Russia’s high-level national domains.

On the evening of January 30, RuNet users reported disruptions to several services and websites, including tech giant Yandex, social media network VKontakte, and online retailer Ozon. The Coordination Center said the error occurred during updates to the domain name system’s (DNSSEC) security extension key. Within two hours, the updated keys were revoked, and the .ru zone’s operation capacity was restored. According to specialists, for those subscribed to providers connected to the National Domain Name System (NSDI), the interruption went practically unnoticed.

“An investigation into the incident is currently ongoing, though it’s already clear that the main reason for the outage were issues in the software used to create encryption keys. Just like any other technological solution, DNSSEC requires time to correct detected performance errors,” said the Coordination Center.

The Net Freedoms Project suggested that the outage may have been an attempt to move Russia’s Internet users to the national Domain Name System (DNS) server.