Hacker attack paralyzes the largest Ukrainian mobile phone provider

The largest Ukrainian mobile operator has fallen victim to a massive hacker attack. Mobile phone and internet services were down across the country. According to Ukrainian intelligence, it could be a Russian cyber attack.

An unprecedented attack has paralyzed Ukraine’s largest mobile phone provider. “On the morning of December 12th, the Kyivstar network was the target of a strong hacker attack, which is the reason for the technical disruptions,” the company said on the short message service X.

Telephone and Internet connections in the provider’s network failed across the country. The company website was also down. The IT infrastructure was “partially destroyed,” said CEO Olexander Komarov on television. The company was forced to physically shut down Kyivstar to limit attackers’ access.

Personal data apparently not affected

The Ukrainian secret service SBU said that it was possibly a hacker attack by Russian special services. This is an assumption that is currently being investigated. Ukraine says it is regularly the target of Russian hacker attacks. Kyivstar spoke of a “war”. This takes place “not only on the battlefield, but also in virtual space”.

According to Kyivstar, personal customer data was not affected by the hacker attack. Customers would be compensated for the outage. It is not yet clear when the mobile network will work again, Komarov said. As an alternative, Kyivstar recommended that subscribers switch to other providers’ networks.

After the Russian invasion more than 21 months ago, a free transition was agreed between all Ukrainian mobile phone providers. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko also pointed out free internet access in the warming points set up by the state.

More companies attacked by hackers

The Ukrainian payment processor Monobank said it was also affected by a cyber attack. The company is suffering from a so-called DDoS attack, in which website servers are flooded with requests in order to cause them to crash. But everything is “under control,” said a co-founder of the company.

Ukraine’s largest bank, PrivatBank, reported disruptions in some of its branches and ATMs, according to Hromadske television. The second largest mobile phone provider Vodafone also reported technical problems.

According to its own information, Kyivstar has a good 24 million subscribers. In November, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was added to the mobile phone company’s supervisory board.