Ukraine Rues 'Disastrous' Russian Cyber Hack: 'Big Warning' to the West

Russian hackers infiltrated Ukraine's communications giant Kyivstar months before launching an attack that left customers without phone or internet access in December, the country's cyber spy chief revealed, calling the breach "disastrous."

In an interview with Reuters published on Thursday, Illia Vitiuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine's (SBU) cybersecurity department, said Russian hackers had gained access to the private company's system from at least May 2023, seeking to gather intelligence and land a psychological blow. Some 24 million users were left without service for days starting December 12.

Kyivstar, Ukraine's largest electronic communications operator, is part of the international telecom group VEON, which has its headquarters in the Netherlands. It has more than 24 million mobile customers and 1 million home internet users.

"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 said.

The attack destroyed "almost everything," including thousands of virtual servers and PCs, and was likely the first example of a cyber attack that "completely destroyed the core of a telecoms operator."

"For now, we can say securely, that they were in the system at least since May 2023," Vitiuk said. "I cannot say right now, since what time they had...full access: probably at least since November."

Newsweek has reached out to Kyivstar and the Russian Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

Kyivstar said in December that it had fallen victim to a "powerful" attack by hackers that caused a "technical failure that resulted in mobile connection and internet access services being temporarily unavailable."

The cyber attack also caused air raid sirens in Ukraine's northeastern city of Sumy to malfunction.

"Specialists are working to eliminate the consequences of a hacking attack to restore communication and service as soon as possible," Kyivstar said. "We apologize for the temporary inconvenience and thank you for your understanding."

Kyivstar said efforts to restore services was a "challenge" and involved cooperation with state services and law enforcement. It said that the personal data of its customers had not been compromised.

"Yes, our enemies are treacherous. But we are ready to face any difficulties, overcome them and continue to work for Ukrainians," the statement said.

The SBU said at the time that "one of the versions currently being investigated by SBU investigators is that the Russian special services may be behind this hacker attack."

Kyivstar's general director, Oleksandr Komarov, also appeared to signal that Russia could be behind the attack.

"The war with Russia has many dimensions and one of them is in cyberspace," he said. "We are working to restore communication as soon as possible."

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