Kyivstar, Ukraine’s major mobile network operator, expressed hope to restore operations by Wednesday after being targeted by the biggest cyberattack since the war with Russia broke out in February 2022, according to Reuters.
More than half of the population use Kyivstar services. The attack on the mobile operator, which took place on Tuesday, led to the service shutdown and IT infrastructure damage. It also knocked out the air alert systems in some parts of Kyiv.
Oleksandr Komarov, the company’s CEO, stated that the attack was “a result of” the war.
“War is also happening in cyberspace. Unfortunately, we have been hit as a result of this war. [The attack] significantly damaged [our] infrastructure, limited access, we could not counter it at the virtual level, so we shut down Kyivstar physically to limit the enemy’s access.”
Komarov noted that users’ personal data had not been compromised. He did not specify who exactly was responsible for the attack, but the Russian hacktivist group Killnet claimed responsibility in a statement on the Telegram app, without providing any evidence.
Kyivstar, which serves 24.3 million mobile subscribers and more than 1.1 million home internet subscribers, reported late Tuesday night that fixed-line services had been partially restored.
This isn’t the first attempt to breach the perimeter of the country’s telecom operator, but unfortunately, this attempt has been successful.
A source close to Ukraine’s cyber defence agency also stated that the source of the attack was believed to be Russia, although the specific group had not been identified.
“It’s definitely a state actor. There’s no ransom. It’s all destruction. So it’s not a financially motivated attack.”
Komarov told Forbes Ukraine that Kyivstar’s “working hypothesis” suggested that the attack was aimed at the disruption of mobile communications.
Perhaps it was aimed at disrupting the president’s visit to the United States, perhaps to aggravate energy blackouts, or impact the morale of Ukrainians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Washington on Tuesday appealing for more US military support in the fight against Russia.
Ukrainian officials announced that the cyberattack affected air alert systems in more than 75 communities across the Kyiv region. They would announce the air alert via loudspeakers until repairs were completed. In Kyiv, some people rushed to connect to other mobile phone providers, with a short customer line forming outside the shop of Vodafone, Kyivstar’s biggest competitor.
Kyivstar, owned by Amsterdam-registered mobile operator Veon (VON.AS), reported co-operation with law enforcement agencies.
Representatives of PrivatBank and Oschadbank, two of Ukraine’s largest financial institutions, reported that some of their ATMs and card terminals suffered due to the Kyivstar malfunction.
A cyberattack hit Viasat Inc (VSAT.O) early in the war, disabling thousands of satellite internet modems across Europe and causing huge communications losses for Ukraine.
