2024-04-04T16:37:00+03:00 Politics 2024-09-15T04:32:25+03:00

Ukrainian news

SSU identifies russian hackers who attacked Kyivstar and will hand over case materials to The Hague

SSU identifies russian hackers who attacked Kyivstar and will hand over case materials to The Hague

Cyber experts and investigators of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) are gathering evidence against the hackers of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the russian federation (better known as the GRU), who carried out an attack on one of the national mobile operators Kyivstar. After conducting all examinations and announcing suspicions, the materials of this investigation will be transferred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

This was reported by the head of the Cyber Security Department of the SSU, Illia Vitiuk, in an interview with Ukrinform, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"We are working to announce suspicions according to our legislation, and in the future to transfer these cases to the International Criminal Court. War criminals should be tried at the international level!" Vitiuk noted.

So far, the Security Service of Ukraine has established that the attack on Kyivstar was carried out by the SandWorm hacker group, which is a full-time unit of the russian GRU.

According to Vitiuk, the SSU is currently conducting a series of examinations on the systems affected by hackers and the damage caused.

The special service also sent requests for additional information from international partners.

Vitiuk emphasized that within the framework of the criminal proceedings, the Cyber Security Department of the SSU is processing all participants of the vertical, who were involved in this attack.

"Not only a specific hacker should be responsible for what has been done, but also, at least, the head of the military unit and the leadership of the special service, which carries out destructive activities," the head of the Cyber Security Department of the SSU is convinced.

At the same time, he emphasized that there are only three cases in the world when hackers were suspected of cyberattacks on infrastructure.

Moreover, one of them is precisely the result of the SSU.

Vitiuk also said that, in general, during a full-scale war, the Security Service blocks 4,500 cyberattacks each year.

A special priority in cyber defense is the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Ministry of Defense, as attempts by the enemy to interfere with military systems occur regularly.

"Employees of the Cyber Security Department of the SSU work on a permanent basis in military units, headquarters, travel to the front lines, check devices and systems for unauthorized interference," Vitiuk said.

In particular, the SSU prevented the technical penetration of the enemy into 1,700 devices of the Ukrainian military.

In addition to cyberattacks, russian special services conduct IPSO to discredit the command of the Defense Forces.

For example, there were information attacks and attempts to hack official accounts, as well as the creation of dozens of fake pages of the Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.

The enemy conducts similar discrediting attacks against SSU employees: they receive threats of physical violence, letters with signs of recruitment and blackmail, etc.

Vitiuk noted that there have already been fake throw-ins on him personally and new attacks are possible.

"It is very easy to manipulate information to try to influence someone, but we are ready for such methods of waging war," he summarized.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on December 12, 2023, the Kyivstar mobile communications operator was subjected to a powerful hacker attack. On December 15, Kyivstar restored access to the mobile Internet in the entire territory controlled by Ukraine.