The Ukrainian cyber espionage chief revealed that Russian hackers were inside the system of telecommunications company Kyivstar from at least May of last year. A hit that should be seen as a "big warning" to the rest of the nation.
Some 24 million customers were left without service for days beginning on December 12, 2023, as a result of the attack. This is considered one of the most significant incidents since Russia's full-scale invasion almost two years ago.
People walk by a Kyivstar store, a Ukrainian telecommunications company, in Kyiv on December 12, 2023. Ukraine's main phone operator denounced an act of "war" on December 12, 2023, after the hacker attack that led to large-scale failures in its services.
'Big Warning'
Exclusive information regarding the breach was revealed in an interview by Reuters with Illia Vitiuk, chief of the cybersecurity section of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). He said that the attack caused disastrous damage and that its goals were to score a psychological blow and acquire intelligence.
"This attack is a big message, a big warning, not only to Ukraine but for the whole Western world to understand that no one is actually untouchable," Vitiuk pointed out. He brought up the fact that Kyivstar was a private, affluent firm that put a lot of money into cybersecurity.
Thousands of virtual servers and personal computers were erased in the assault, which he described as the first instance of a devastating hack that utterly ruined a telecoms operator.
According to his statement made in a Zoom interview, the SBU determined throughout its investigation that the hackers likely tried to breach Kyivstar last March or earlier. "For now, we can say securely, that they were in the system at least since May 2023. I cannot say right now, since what time they had ... full access: probably at least since November," he added.
Depending on the extent of access the hackers had, the SBU determined that they may have stolen personal information, phone locations, SMS messages, and perhaps even Telegram accounts of Kyivstar's clients.
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Damage From Cyberattack
With no alternative carriers serving their small towns and villages, almost 1.1 million Ukrainians rely on Kyivstar. It is the largest of Ukraine's three major telecommunications operators.
Due to the incident, Reuters reported that many individuals hurried to get alternative SIM cards, resulting in lengthy lineups. Vitiuk stated that the air-raid siren, which is activated during missile and drone assaults, stopped working in certain places and that ATMs that utilize Kyivstar SIM cards for the internet stopped functioning as well.
A representative from Kyivstar said that the firm is cooperating fully with the SBU in their investigation into the hack and that they would do all in their power to prevent such attacks in the future. According to the individual, there has been no evidence of any breach of subscriber or personal data.
Vitiuk said that the SBU assisted Kyivstar in regaining control of its networks and fending off further cyberattacks in a matter of days. He added that after the main breach, a number of other efforts were made with the intention of inflicting more harm on the operator.
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