Russia and Ukraine reported mutual cyberattacks early Monday against systems used to issue emergency alerts to the public, according to media reports and social media posts from both countries.
In Russia, the mobile application of the Ministry of Emergency Situations was attacked and sent users notifications claiming that nuclear warheads had been launched against every region of the country, independent outlet Meduza reported. The ministry confirmed the incident, saying criminals had used the system to distribute false information in bulk, but added that the country’s general warning system had not been affected.
The independent Telegram channel Astra also reported an attack on Beget, a major Russian web-hosting provider whose infrastructure supports more than 700,000 active domains in the Russian segment of the internet. Down Detector recorded numerous complaints about websites hosted by the company.
In Ukraine, hackers targeted the mobile air-raid alert application. Users received messages warning of radiation, chemical attacks and urban fighting. A Russian-language message also claimed that a nuclear alert had been issued across Ukraine and referred to the launch of an Oreshnik ballistic missile.
Ukraine’s Air Force said on Telegram that the Air Alert application had probably been compromised. The application later stated that there was no radiation risk and urged users to remain calm and follow official updates.
The service said that unauthorized third parties had interfered with the application. It disabled push notifications and temporarily suspended operations, adding that the app did not store personal data and that users should not open links contained in suspicious notifications.
The incidents followed a claim made the previous day by a Belarusian hacker group that it had breached the servers of Russia’s Federal State Statistics Service, known as Rosstat. The group said the intrusion affected about 25,000 computers and gave it access to 23 terabytes of sensitive information, including Russian military casualties in the war in Ukraine.
Sources: Observador.