Russian budget carrier Pobeda is blaming Chinese sources for a cyberattack on its reservations engine.
The carrier, which is part of Aeroflot Group, says it was exposed to a "powerful" distributed denial-of-service attack on 12 August.
It states that its booking engine was at peak user load about 5min before the attack, which occurred at 14:10.
"Because of [the attack] the site could not withstand the load," says the airline.
Reservation system specialist Amadeus's Navitaire division says the pressure on the system was "extremely high". It adds that its analysis revealed Chinese internet protocol addresses as the source.
"We will contact law enforcement agencies and seek to establish the organisers of the attack and hold them accountable," says Pobeda general director Andrei Kalmykov.
He points out that the high regular user load on the Pobeda booking site had been driven by a sale, and that the carrier managed to sell over 52,000 tickets despite the disruption.
Pobeda admits that check-in processes for its flights was "complicated" as a result of the attack, but adds that its site functionality has since been restored.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
