Cyberattack on Russia’s food safety agency reportedly disrupts product shipments

A cyberattack on Russia’s agricultural and food safety watchdog earlier this week disrupted food shipments across the country, local media reported.

The state agency, Rosselkhoznadzor, said it was targeted by a large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Wednesday that affected its online infrastructure, including “VetIS” and “Saturn” — systems that track the movement of agricultural products and chemicals. 

According to reports from the Russian trade outlet Shopper’s, the disruption caused serious delays in food deliveries after the electronic veterinary certification platform Mercury — part of VetIS — became unavailable. Two major dairy producers and a baby food manufacturer told Shopper’s that they were unable to ship products for several hours on Wednesday.

Rosselkhoznadzor said there was “no threat to the integrity or confidentiality” of data stored in its networks. The agency has not commented further on the incident, and no hacker group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Under Russian law, companies handling meat, milk, eggs and other animal products must register with Mercury and issue electronic veterinary documents confirming product authenticity and safety. Without these certificates, suppliers cannot legally deliver goods to retailers or processors.

The production movement was paralyzed for half of the day, one company manager said, adding that the lack of an emergency procedure allowing shipments without digital paperwork led to financial losses. 

Rosselkhoznadzor denied reports of prolonged disruptions, saying Thursday that the Mercury system was operating “as usual.” As of Friday, the agency’s website was accessible, though it remained unclear whether all affected systems had been fully restored.

This is reportedly the fourth attack on Mercury this year. In June, a similar incident forced dairy producers to revert to paper-based certification, creating logistical chaos as regional distribution centers and major retailers struggled with supply interruptions.

According to the local dairy industry association, some retailers refused to accept products without electronic documents, while unclear guidance from regulators caused confusion among suppliers.