A group of Russian hackers has announced their involvement in the cyberattack that destroyed the network infrastructure of Ukrainian communications operator Kyivstar. The mobile operator, together with the Security Service of Ukraine, continues to work to restore services.

This was reported by Security Service of Ukraine.

Responsibility for the attack has already been claimed by one of the Russian sham hacker groups (according to Russian media reports, its name is Solntsepek – ed.). It is a hacker unit of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, known as the GRU, which thus publicly legalises the results of its criminal activities.

It is noted that cyber specialists of the Security Service of Ukraine and Kyivstar engineers, in cooperation with other government bodies, continue to work on restoring the network after yesterday’s hacker attack.

According to early estimates, the fixed-line internet for households is planned to be restored on 13 December, and mobile and internet services to be launched on the same day.

It is noted that Kyivstar’s digital infrastructure has been critically damaged, so it will take time to restore all services in compliance with the necessary security protocols.

Background:

On the morning of December 12, Kyivstar subscribers reported a communication outage. As of 11:00, the Minister of Infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov, expressed hope that Kyivstar’s operations would be restored within 4-5 hours.

Later in the day, the CEO of the company, Oleksandr Komarov, announced that Kyivstar had become the target of a powerful hacker attack. Due to the attack, communication and internet services were temporarily unavailable. It is unknown when Kyivstar’s operations will be restored after the hacking attack.

There is no information in the National Police about searches at Kyivstar, as reported by some Telegram channels. SBU sources also currently do not confirm this information.

Kyivstar’s press service informed the public broadcaster that it was a hacker attack. The company assures that subscribers’ personal data has not been compromised.

Kyivstar subscribers cannot use communication from other operators due to internal roaming issues caused by the failure. The network outage has affected the operation of some POS terminals and ATMs of PrivatBank.

Photo: open sources