 More than half of Ukrainians had their mobile services impacted by last month’s cyberattack : Amsterdam-based mobile operator group VEON, which owns the Ukrainian telco Kyivstar, has completed its initial assessment of the financial impact of the Russian cyberattack on their network, estimating compensation for customers will cost almost $100 million. The cost is derived from compensating customers for the disruption caused, rather than from repairing damage to the network itself. The cyberattack was carried out by a group named Solntsepyok, who claimed responsibility shortly after the network attack. The Ukrainian security services believe the group are linked to Sandworm, a Russian military intelligence cyberwarfare unit. The attack, which occurred on 12th December 2023, left millions of Ukrainians unable to access the mobile network services, including emergency alerts about incoming Russian airstrikes. Services were down for about four days, with Kyivstar announcing the network was fully restored and running as normal on December 20th. The cyberattack was the biggest of the Russia–Ukraine war so far. In an interview with Reuters, Illia Vitiuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine’s (SBU) cybersecurity department, said that the 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”. He further noted that the attack was the first time that a cyberattack had “completely destroyed the core of a telecoms operator”. It is believed that the group had been attempting to infiltrate the network since March last year and had been successfully inside since May, therefore being able to access device locations, steal sensitive personal data, and intercept messages. The attack had no impact on the Ukrainian military, who do not rely on telecoms operators for communication. The attack interrupted the provision of voice and data connectivity on both mobile and fixed networks, international roaming, and SMS services for Kyivstar customers both in Ukraine and abroad. Vitiuk said that the attack may have been made easier due to infrastructural similarities between Kyivstar and Beeline, the Russian mobile operator that VEON owned and operated until November 2022. In a television message to Ukrainians in the wake of the attack, Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov said: “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.” Kyivstar loses $100m due to Russian cyberattack | Total Telecom:
|
