Millions of Ukrainians could have been left without cell phones and internet since Tuesday after one of the largest cyber attacks since Russia sent its Army to the neighboring country, in February 2022. Ukraine attributes the action to a group of hackers that it links to intelligence Russian military and that yesterday claimed responsibility for the intrusion.
Although the impact on the number of people affected is difficult to determine, the target of the attack was Ukraine's largest mobile phone operator, Kyivstar, which has 24.3 million cell phone subscriptions and provides internet to more than one million homes. . The attack hit banking and other critical industries. A regional air raid warning service was also affected.
Kyivstar was going to start restoring voice services to some of its customers last night, and then restart others, its president, Olexander Komarov, told Reuters yesterday.
The hacker-activist group Solntsepyok yesterday claimed responsibility for the attack in a message posted on Telegram. According to them, they destroyed 10,000 computers, more than 4,000 servers and cloud storage and backup systems. Kyivstar said yesterday on X that this is “false.”
“We have attacked Kyivstar because it provides communications to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as state bodies and power structures of Ukraine,” they explained.
Russia always denies being behind this type of cyberattacks.
The Solntsepyok hackers offered “special thanks to Kyivstar employees who are not indifferent,” which could indicate some kind of help. The Security Services of Ukraine (SBU) said on Tuesday that they had opened an investigation for treason.
The cyber aggression came hours before this week's second Russian missile attack on Kyiv, in what the Russian newspaper Moskovski Komsomolets called "a double blow." Digital security expert Igor Bederov explained in this medium that the cyberattack could have affected the coordination of Ukrainian troops. “Although the Ukrainian military uses the Starlink network for coordination and communication, many actions such as data transmission are still carried out with instant messaging (Telegram, Signal, etc.), linked to cellular communication. Without it, everyone will perform extremely poorly,” he explained.
In the Russian missile attack against Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities yesterday reported 53 injuries and damage to several residential buildings and a children's hospital. Russia claims, for its part, that it attacked military installations.
