Hackers Paralyzed The Work Of More Than 2 Thousand Alkomarkets And One Of The Largest Alcohol Producers In Russia
- 17.07.2025, 13:05
Will there be a revolution?
More than 2,100 Vinlab alkomarkets have been out of business for the past few days due to an "unprecedented" hacker attack, Novabev Group, which owns the chain, said. The stores closed on Monday, July 14, at the same time the retailer's website and app stopped working. Customers began to complain that they could not pick up ordered drinks at points of sale and parcels from postamats. Customers who placed online orders are offered to extend the shelf life of their purchases, according to The Moscow Times.
Besides the Vinlab chain, Novabev Group owns alcohol production, particularly Beluga and Belenkaya vodka. According to Forbes, at the end of 2024 the holding became the largest alcohol producer in Russia in terms of revenue, which amounted to 34 billion rubles. According to Vedomosti's sources in two retail chains, Novabev Group's alcohol supplies have also been stopped since July 15. Against this backdrop, the holding's shares fell 5.5% on the Moscow Exchange. A representative of Novabev Group said that the hackers demanded a monetary reward for the restoration of the holding's IT infrastructure, but this contradicts the company's position. The IT team and external experts are working on the solution of the situation. The holding also emphasized that "based on the available information, the personal data of clients were not affected."
In mid-2024, Vinlab has already faced a hacker attack, as a result of which a database with data of 9 million clients leaked into the network, recalls the director of the investigation department of T.Hunter Igor Bederov. According to him, in a negative scenario, the downtime of stores and alcohol production can last from seven to 14 days, and in an optimistic scenario - from three to five. The expert estimated the losses of Vinlab alone at about 1.5 billion rubles. In addition, Novabev Group is at risk of receiving a negotiable fine for the leakage of personal data in the amount of about 860 million rubles, if any. At the same time, the general director of the agency "Infoline-analitika" Mikhail Burmistrov believes that the losses of "Winlab" will not exceed 0.8% of quarterly revenue and will amount to about 170 million rubles. If the failure is eliminated as soon as possible, it will have a minimal impact on traffic and sales and will be compensated during July-August, summarized Burmistrov.
Representatives of two retail chains told "Vedomosti" that there is still a stock of Novabev Group products in warehouses. A small downtime, according to one of them, is unlikely to lead to any consequences. Another interlocutor noted that his company has already switched to other suppliers and has no problems with alcohol products.
According to RED Security, in the first half of 2025, the number of cyberattacks on Russian companies increased by 27%, exceeding 63 thousand incidents. The Telecom Exchange study said that in 2024, 58% of Russian companies experienced downtime or data loss. The most frequent failures were observed in IT companies, industrial and telecom companies.