Russian hackers spent months inside Ukrainian telecoms giant

Cyberattack should alarm the West, Kyiv security chief warns
Tom Parfitt
The Times
The Security Service of Ukraine said that the hackers had been in the system since at least May last year
The Security Service of Ukraine said that the hackers had been in the system since at least May last year
AFP
Tom Parfitt
The Times

A cyber warfare unit controlled by Russian intelligence spent more than six months trawling data inside Ukraine’s biggest mobile phone operator in what should be a “big warning” to the West, the security service of Ukraine said.

Kyivstar, the Ukrainian telecoms giant, said last month that Russian hackers had knocked out services for 24 million users for several days from December 12.

Illia Vitiuk, head of the security service of Ukraine’s (SBU) cybersecurity department, has now revealed that the hackers were already delving inside Kyivstar six months earlier.

“They were in the system at least since May 2023,” he told Reuters in an exclusive interview. “I cannot say right now since what time they had … full access: probably at least since November.”

The SBU