Russia’s food safety agency halts shipments after DDoS attack

Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, announced that its nationwide food distribution has been affected by a major distributed denial-of-service attack that has disabled its Saturn and VetIS digital tracking systems, which oversee the movement of chemicals and agricultural products across the country, reports Security Affairs.

The agency confirmed the attack began on Oct. 22, 2025 and said there was "no threat to the integrity or confidentiality of the data processed in the systems."

According to Russian outlet Shoppers, suppliers tried negotiating with retailers to continue deliveries without digital documents. Intelsk, Megafon, and Rostelecom worked to mitigate the attack by filtering malicious network traffic. Rosselkhoznadzor later stated that its systems were functioning normally, according to Record Media, and that over 14.5 million certificates were processed, disputing claims of prolonged downtime.

However, full recovery status remains uncertain. The incident represents the fourth attack on the Mercury system in 2025, with the previous disruption in June having forced the use of paper certificates, severely impacting the dairy industry and supply chains.