Wed 13 December 2023:
A major cyberattack on Ukraine’s largest mobile operator on Tuesday disrupted a regional air raid warning service and some banking services for Ukrainians, according to the operator and local authorities.
The Security Service of Ukraine said in a statement that it has opened criminal proceedings into the attack.
Russia’s special services might be behind the attack, the Security Service of Ukraine said.
Oleksandr Komarov, Kyivstar’s president, said that the IT infrastructure of the company was partially destroyed by the attack, the Economichna Pravda media outlet reported.
According to various media reports, the attack disrupted the work of ATM machines and pos-terminals in Ukraine.
It also affected the operation of air raid alert systems in more than 75 settlements in the Kiev region, the regional military administration said on Telegram.
Kyivstar provides services to over 24 million mobile customers and more than 1 million home Internet customers in Ukraine.
The Kyivstar disruption came as Ukraine’s military took the remarkable step of publicly claiming credit in a press release Tuesday for a cyberattack on Russia’s federal tax service.
Russian state-backed hackers have launched an array of cyberattacks against Ukrainian critical infrastructure alongside airstrikes and other physical attacks to try to degrade Ukrainian defenses, according to Ukrainian officials, US officials and private experts.
The impact of cyberattacks is difficult to assess because of the fog of war, but Ukraine’s cyber defenses have largely proved resilient, according to independent experts.
Ukrainian telecom firms have been a target of Russian hacking groups for years, including a notorious group linked with Russia’s military intelligence agency, said John Hultquist, chief analyst at the Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant.
The telecommunication sector “is often targeted by cyber espionage actors seeking to quietly gather intelligence but attacks can have serious military consequences as well as psychological impacts on the populace,” Hultquist said.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
______________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
WhatsApp CHANNEL
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
