此次袭击发生在乌克兰对俄罗斯数据中心发动的一系列攻击之后。
The attack follows a series of Ukrainian strikes on Russian data centres.
莫斯科消息： 周三（10月14日），乌克兰无人机袭击了俄罗斯最大的数据中心。这一系列攻击似乎旨在阻碍俄罗斯发展人工智能技术的目标，使其技术水平与美国和中国相当。
MOSCOW: Ukrainian drones hit Russia's biggest data centre on Wednesday (Oct 14), part of a series of attacks appearing to target Moscow's ambitions to develop Russian artificial intelligence capabilities on a par with those from the US and China.
该数据中心由俄罗斯最大的银行及科技公司——Sberbank拥有。此前一周内，俄罗斯Yandex科技集团旗下的多个数据中心也遭到了袭击。
The strike on the Balakovo data centre, owned by Sberbank, the country's largest bank and technology company, followed three attacks in the past week on data centres owned by Russian technology group Yandex.
Sberbank首席运营官亚历山大·韦杰亚金向记者表示：“我们确认该数据中心确实遭到了攻击，但Sberbank的所有系统和服务目前仍正常运行，没有受到任何干扰。”
"We confirm that the data processing centre was attacked. At the same time, all of Sberbank's systems and services are operating normally and without disruption," Sberbank First Deputy CEO Alexander Vedyakhin told reporters.
俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京周三召开了一次事先未公布的会议，讨论“信息安全”问题，Sberbank的首席执行官格曼·格列夫也出席了会议。克里姆林宫表示，此次会议与数据中心遭袭事件无关。据俄罗斯国家新闻机构RIA Novosti报道，周三遭到袭击的Sberbank数据中心将容纳俄罗斯最大的超级计算机，该计算机计划于2027年投入使用。
Russian President Vladimir Putin held a previously unannounced meeting on Wednesday with top officials on "information security", in which Sberbank CEO German Gref took part. The Kremlin said that the meeting was not linked to the attacks on data centres. Russia's state RIA Novosti news agency reported in 2024 that the Sberbank centre hit on Wednesday would host Russia's biggest supercomputer, which is scheduled to go into operation in 2027.
此前遭到袭击的Yandex数据中心内存放着该公司所有的超级计算机。目前，Yandex和Sberbank都尚未透露这些用于训练人工智能模型的超级计算机是否在袭击中受损。
The Yandex data centres, hit earlier, hosted all three of that company's operating supercomputers. Neither Yandex nor Sberbank has said whether supercomputers, used to train the AI models, were damaged in the Ukrainian attacks.
作为俄罗斯国内主要的人工智能技术开发商，Sberbank与其主要竞争对手Yandex共同主导着该国的人工智能领域。根据Sberbank自己的估计，由于西方制裁限制了俄罗斯获取先进硬件的能力，两家公司在该领域的发展进度比美国和中国落后了最多9个月。
Along with Yandex, its main domestic rival, Sberbank is Russia's leading developer of artificial intelligence. The domestic market is shared between Sberbank's GigaChat model and YandexGPT. DIFFICULTIES PURCHASING CHIPS Both companies have invested heavily in the development of their models but lag global leaders in the United States and China by up to nine months, according to Sberbank's own estimates, partly due to Western sanctions which hinder Russia's access to the most advanced hardware.
“我们在购买现代图形处理单元（GPU）时所面临的困难显而易见；无论是我们还是Yandex都受到了这些困难的影响，”Gref在9月29日表示，这正是俄罗斯在人工智能领域落后于美国和中国的最主要原因。
"It's clear what difficulties we face when purchasing modern graphics processing units. Both we and Yandex suffer from this," Gref said on Sep 29, calling it the biggest reason why Russia lags behind the US and China in AI.
Sberbank正在与中国芯片制造商商谈购买芯片的事宜，但Vedyakhin在6月3日接受路透社采访时指出，美国芯片制造商Nvidia对其CUDA软件平台的垄断（该软件平台已成为人工智能行业的标准）是一个更加严重的问题。
Sberbank is in talks to buy chips from Chinese makers, but in an interview with Reuters on Jun 3, Vedyakhin said that US chipmaker Nvidia's NVDA.O monopoly on its CUDA software platform, which has become an AI industry standard, is an even greater problem.
Yandex此前曾表示，其超级计算机使用的是Nvidia A100芯片（该芯片于2020年推出，之后被更先进的H100芯片取代）。
Yandex said previously that its supercomputers operated on Nvidia A100 chips, a model launched in 2020 and since then succeeded by more advanced H100 chips.
Sberbank拥有两台可正常运行的超级计算机：其中最先进的一台名为“Christofari Neo”，在全球最强大的500台超级计算机榜单中排名第167位，这台计算机位于莫斯科，同样采用了Nvidia A100芯片；Yandex的另一台超级计算机“Chervonenkis”在该榜单中的排名是第101位。
Sberbank has two functioning supercomputers. The most advanced one, called Christofari Neo, ranked 167th in the Top 500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers, is located in Moscow and is based on Nvidia A100 chips.
IT专家Mikhail Klimarev告诉路透社，由于西方的制裁，更换这些芯片可能需要很长时间；此外，这些超级计算机的损坏可能会进一步阻碍俄罗斯的人工智能产业发展（俄罗斯的人工智能产业本身就已经受到了制裁的影响）。
Yandex's most advanced Chervonenkis supercomputer is ranked 101st in the same list. IT expert Mikhail Klimarev told Reuters it could take a long time to replace the chips due to Western sanctions, while damage to the supercomputers could set back the Russian AI industry, which already suffered from sanctions.
“这些设备确实是通过间接渠道从国外进口的，但成本非常高昂。首先，你必须与供应商进行谈判，确保他们愿意出售设备并且不惧怕制裁，”他说。
"The equipment is being imported, but it's done at a high cost, through indirect routes. First, you need to negotiate so that someone is willing to sell it to you and is not afraid of sanctions," he said.
一些评论人士将Sberbank（这家受政府控制的机构）未受到明显影响的情况与Yandex（其出租车和食品配送业务受到了制裁）进行了对比，认为这表明Sberbank的基础设施得到了更好的保护。
PROTECT ASSETS Some commentators compared the lack of reported disruption at state-controlled Sberbank with Yandex - whose taxi and food delivery units had reported disruptions - saying it showed that Sberbank's centres are better protected.
“这是一个很好的例子，展示了企业主如何保护自己的资产，”军事博主Alexander Kots写道。根据普京8月颁布的法令，政府有权接管那些防护措施不足的设施。
"This is a great example of what a business owner can do to protect their assets," wrote military blogger Alexander Kots. Under an August decree by Putin, the state can take over administration of poorly protected facilities.
Sberbank的数据中心位于巴拉科沃核电站附近，该数据中心将核电站作为能源来源，同时也靠近萨拉托夫水电站。此次袭击未对两座电站造成损害。
The Sberbank site is located close to the Balakovo nuclear power plant, which the data centre uses as an energy source, and the Saratov hydroelectric power plant. No damage was reported to either plant from the attack.
乌克兰表示，这是对俄罗斯针对其数据中心的攻击的回应。两国已互相袭击对方的炼油厂、发电站、港口和电子商务公司。
Ukraine says it is responding to Russian attacks on its own data sites. Both countries have attacked each other's refineries, power stations, ports and e-commerce companies.
俄罗斯数字发展部本周表示，正与军方就保护数据中心进行磋商，而一些立法者呼吁将数据中心迁至地下，以使硬件无法被无人机触及。
Russia's digital development ministry said this week it was in talks with the military on protecting the data centres, while some lawmakers called for them to be moved underground where the hardware will be out of reach for drones.
“我们需要所谓的‘末日数据堡垒’，”国有控股的俄罗斯电信公司（Rostelecom）副首席执行官瓦列里·叶尔马科夫在莫斯科的一场会议上表示。该公司也是另一家主要的数据中心运营商。
"We need a so-called Doomsday data vault," Valery Yermakov, deputy CEO of state-controlled Rostelecom, another major data centre operator, told a conference in Moscow.