Ukraine: Cyberattack interrupts mobile and internet communications nationwide Dec. 12

Widespread mobile, landline, and internet communications outages are continuing across Ukraine's Kyivstar communications network as of the evening of Dec. 12 following a major cyberattack targeting the company earlier the same day. Kyivstar, nation's largest telecommunications operator, first began experiencing technical difficulties at about 08:00. Outages are impacting all regions of the country, with technicians having been forced to shut down Kyivstar's systems in order to deny the attackers further access. According to authorities, the outage is also impacting air raid alert systems in at least 75 cities and towns; preliminary information also indicated that the outage may also be affecting some systems used in the banking sector. It remains unclear when normal operations will be restored; however, company officials describe the damage to Kyivstar's infrastructure as "significant." While no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, the government in Kyiv asserts that Russia is behind the incident.

The outage may cause disruptions to transport, medical, and administrative services. Additional attack-induced outages are possible.