Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice temporarily suspended operations of state registers following what officials describe as the largest recent external cyberattack, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Olha Stefanishyna said.
The attack, which occurred on 19 December, targeted multiple government databases. According to Stefanishyna, the recovery expected to take up to two weeks.
Russia has regularly targeted Ukrainian companies and government institutions with cyberattacks since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Russian special services planned to destroy Ukraine’s entire cyber defense system. In August, a massive Russian cyberattack targeted Monobank, the Ukraine’s largest online bank.
“The enemy is attempting to use this situation in their information operations to sow panic among Ukrainian citizens and abroad,” Stefanishyna said.
The Diia government services app also reported temporary disruptions to several services, including employee reservation, LLC registration, online marriage services, property rights registration, and car re-registration.
The app’s website notes that the National Information Systems are conducting technical work, emphasizing that Diia itself doesn’t store personal data but only pulls information from registers.
The Russian hacking network XakNet Team claims that they breached the databases of National Information Systems and the entire Ministry of Justice database. They reportedly deleted over a billion rows of data, including backup copies stored on servers in Poland.
According to US Deputy Treasury Secretary Graham Steele, Ukraine’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA) documented nearly 4,000 cyber incidents between January 2022 and September 2023.
Russia consistently denies allegations related to cyber activity, including Kyiv’s claims of large-scale cyberattacks as part of a “hybrid war” against Ukraine.
The MacPow, a Ukrainian software development company, and Sense Bank, one of the largest banks in Ukraine, were affected by the attack on the morning of 20 October as well.
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