Russian hackers have been in the system of the largest Ukrainian operator Kyivstar since at least May 2023. The head of the cybersecurity department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Ilya Vityuk, told Reuters about this.
On December 12, Kyivstar suffered a large-scale cyber attack. Vityuk called the consequences “catastrophic.” He said the attack destroyed “almost everything,” including thousands of virtual servers and PCs, and “completely destroyed the carrier’s core.”
The SBU says that hackers could steal personal information, determine the location of phones, intercept SMS and gain access to Telegram accounts. Kyivstar claims that “no leakage of personal and subscriber data has been identified.”
Vityuk added that the operator, with the help of the SBU, restored its systems within a few days and repelled new cyber attacks. The intelligence agency spokesman is “pretty sure” that Russian military intelligence unit Sandworm was behind the attack.