24 Million Ukrainians Knocked Offline In War's Biggest Cyberattack Yet

Ukraine’s biggest internet provider was knocked offline on Tuesday in the largest cyberattack carried out against the country since Russia began its invasion last year. 

Kyivstar, which has more than 24 million customers in the country, posted on Facebook that it was  “the target of a powerful hacker attack” Tuesday morning that took down both mobile service and internet connectivity. The company said it is engaging with state officials working on restoring service. 

“We sincerely apologize for the temporary inconvenience and thank you for your understanding. Our team will definitely provide compensation to those subscribers who had no communication or could not use our services,” the company said. “Yes, our enemies are cunning. But we are ready to face any difficulties, overcome them, and continue working for Ukrainians.”

Kyivstar’s website is currently offline. NetBlocks, a service that monitors global internet connectivity, confirmed in a post on Tuesday morning that Kyivstar’s service had “collapsed” and attached a chart showing the sharp drop-off. 

As reported by NBC News, Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov said in a television interview that the cyberattack was carried out as part of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. 

“The war with the Russian Federation has many dimensions, and one of them is in cyberspace,” Komarov said, according to NBC News. “Unfortunately, this morning the operator became the target of a superpowerful cyberattack, because of which communications services and internet access are unavailable.”

The Ukrainian Security Service, or SBU, is investigating links to Russia, the Ukrainian newspaper Kyivpost reported Tuesday. “The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has opened criminal proceedings into a cyber attack on one of the national mobile operators, Kyivstar,” the SBU told the outlet. “One of the versions currently being investigated is that the special services of the Russian Federation may be behind this hacker attack.””

The attack occurred as Russia ramps up its bombing of the country. Last week, Russia fired cruise missiles into Ukraine after an 80-day pause. Of the 19 missiles launched by Russia, 14 were destroyed by Ukraine’s air defenses. 

Cyberwarfare has been an ongoing fixture of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Attackers linked to Russia have successfully targeted Ukrainian websites, satellite telecommunications services, and have attempted to infiltrate energy infrastructure. But Tuesday’s hack has had the largest impact on civilians to date.