Kyivstar, Ukraine's largest mobile operator, has suffered a powerful hacker attack
Kyivstar, Ukraine's largest mobile operator, has suffered a massive hacker attack, which resulted in a technical failure.
The company's representatives announced this.
The mobile operator's users across the country have no mobile or internet connection. Some bank terminals and ATMs are also out of service due to the failure, and there are problems with public transport in cities. In the city of Sumy, located 50 kilometres from the border with Russia, the warning system will temporarily be down. The situation is similar in the Cherkasy region, which is in the central part of Ukraine.
As a result of a hacker attack, the operator's IT infrastructure was partially destroyed. According to the CEO of Kyivstar, Oleksandr Komarov, the attack aimed to destroy the infrastructure, and the hackers "partially achieved this goal".
The company does not record any personal data leaks from the network. The company has engaged law enforcement and special state services to document the consequences of the attack. Specialists are working to resolve the issues.
As of March 2023, Kyivstar provides mobile and data services to more than 24.3 million customers and fixed-line internet to more than 1.1 million subscribers.
Monobank, one of Ukraine's most popular online banks, also suffered a massive DDoS attack. However, the bank's cyber experts repelled the attack. More than 7 million customers use the bank.
The Security Service of Ukraine has already opened a criminal investigation into the cyberattack on Kyivstar. Investigators are checking the possibility that Russian intelligence services may be behind the hacker attack. The security services are also checking the possibility of sabotage.
Meanwhile, the Main Intelligence Directorate reported a successful attack by its cyber specialists on the Federal Tax Service of Russia. They managed to penetrate one of the key central servers and then more than 2,300 of its regional servers across Russia and in the temporarily occupied Crimea (Qırım). They were virused with hacking software.
The cyber specialists also attacked the data centre that serves the tax office. Communication between the central office and territorial departments is blocked.
