Rosstat cyberattack delays major Russian economic reports through at least Nov. 13

What happened

Russia's statistics office said that parts of its infrastructure were taken offline by a cyberattack, and it is bringing systems back without disclosing technical details. The agency reported detecting targeted attacks between Oct. 29 and Nov. 1.

Its website has resumed operating, but some information that had been available is now absent. Rosstat said parts of its infrastructure remain isolated to run thorough checks and restore access in phases.

The immediate impact on data

Two weekly price reports due Friday slipped several times before Rosstat ultimately posted the numbers. The cutoff for companies to file statistical returns has been pushed to Nov. 13, and the agency warned that extending the collection window could lead to additional lags for specific data publications.

What Rosstat and the hackers say

"As a result, some website functions and parts of the IT infrastructure may be temporarily unavailable."

On Nov. 1, the Belarusian opposition-aligned Cyber Partisans together with the hacker outfit Silent Crow said they had broken into Rosstat's internal systems, reaching about 25,000 computers and pulling roughly 23 terabytes of material, including data on Russian military casualties during the conflict with Ukraine. According to Rosstat, there was no sign of a breach of its databases or any leak of confidential data.

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Why it matters for your portfolio

After President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, the Kremlin increasingly curtailed public availability of official statistics, withholding or classifying a growing set of economic and demographic indicators. Layer in a cyberattack and extended filing deadlines, and the result is slower releases and thinner visibility into Russia's numbers in the near term.

The bottom line: expect lags in key statistics and treat upcoming Russian macro prints as partial views rather than final reads.

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