by tyler | Dec 12, 2023 | Tech
Ukraine’s largest telecommunications operator Kyivstar says it has been hit by a “powerful” cyberattack that has disrupted phone and internet services for millions of people across the country.
In a Facebook post confirming the incident on Tuesday, Kyivstar wrote that the cyberattack has caused a “technical failure” that left customers without mobile connections or internet access. Kyivstar serves more than 24 million cell phone subscribers and more than 1.1 million home internet users, according to the company’s website, which was also inaccessible at the time of writing.
Officials in the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy also warned that its air raid alert system was also affected by the Kyivstar outage. “The notification system will temporarily not work,” according to a statement by Sumy’s regional military administration posted to Telegram.
Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov said in a video statement that Russia was responsible for the outage. “The war with the Russian Federation has many dimensions, and one of them is in cyberspace,” said Komarov. “Unfortunately, this morning the operator became the target of a super-powerful cyberattack, because of which communications services and internet access are unavailable.”
When asked whether it believed Russia was behind the attack, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Special Communications Service, or SSSCIP, told TechCrunch that “it is too early to draw conclusions.”
“The investigation of the incident, which caused a technical failure in the operator’s work, as a result of which communication and internet access services are temporarily unavailable, is ongoing by specialists of the relevant services,” the SSSCIP spokesperson, who did not provide a name, added. “Among others, specialists of the Government Computer Emergency Response Team CERT-UA are involved in this work.”
Kyivstar spokesperson Iryna Lelichenko was not immediately available to answer TechCrunch’s questions.
In his video statement, Oleksandr added that “it is still not completely clear” when the telecoms giant will restore normal operations. Netherlands-based VEON, Kyivstar’s parent company, said in a statement its technical teams are “working on eliminating the consequences of the hacker attack and restoring communication as soon as possible.”
Kyivstar apologized for the “temporary inconvenience” and promised to compensate users who were affected by the outage, but said that the personal data of subscribers had not been compromised. “Yes, our enemies are treacherous. But we are ready to face any difficulties, overcome them and continue to work for Ukrainians,” the company added.
At the same time that Kyivstar came under attack, Monobank, one of Ukraine’s largest financial institutions, said it had also been targeted by hackers. The bank’s co-founder Oleh Gorokhovsky said in a post on Telegram that the organization had been struck by a “massive DDoS” attack, referring to cyberattacks that involve floods of junk internet traffic aimed at downing online sites and services, but added that “everything is under control.”
Ukraine detains Victor Zhora, former top government cyber official
by tyler | Nov 28, 2023 | CNN, politics
Weeks after the Biden administration laid out the details of a $105 billion national security package that includes funding for both Israel and Ukraine, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he would bring the supplemental request to the floor as soon as next week.
But the effort faces steep hurdles in getting through Congress. Among them: The House and Senate are divided over whether to continue sending aid to Ukraine, and Republican lawmakers want to tie the funding to tightening immigration laws.
The supplemental package would provide security support to Israel, bolster Israeli efforts to secure the release of hostages and extend humanitarian aid to civilians affected by the war in Israel and Gaza, according to a White House fact sheet released in October.
It would also provide training, equipment and weapons to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s invasion and to recapture its territory, as well as to protect Ukrainians from Russian aggression, the fact sheet said.
The package would also include additional funds to support US-Mexico border security, including more patrol agents, machines to detect fentanyl, asylum officers and immigration judge teams. Plus, it would provide funding to strengthen security in the Indo-Pacific region, including Taiwan.
President Joe Biden pushed for the funding request in a prime-time Oval Office address to the nation in October. The administration’s prior request for $24 billion in Ukraine aid was not included in a stopgap government funding measure Congress approved in late September.
Here’s what’s in the package, according to the White House:
RELATED: Ukraine aid: Where the money is coming from, in 4 charts
$7.4 billion for Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region
This story has been updated with additional information.
by tyler | Nov 20, 2023 | Tech
The Ukrainian government has fired two of its most senior cybersecurity officials following accusations of alleged embezzlement.
Yurii Shchyhol, head of Ukraine’s Ukraine’s State Special Communications Service of Ukraine, or SSSCIP, and his deputy Victor Zhora (pictured), who served as deputy chairman and chief digital transformation officer at SSSCIP, were both dismissed by the government, according to senior cabinet official Taras Melnychuk in a public post on Telegram .
Melnychuk did not give a reason for the dismissals.
SSSCIP confirmed in a statement on Monday that Ukraine’s cabinet had appointed Dmytro Makovskyi as the acting head of SSSCIP, citing an ongoing investigation by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU). NABU said in a press release that several members of senior SSSCIP leadership are accused of misusing and embezzling more than $62 million in state funds.
When reached for comment, Zhora told TechCrunch: “I have nothing to add to SSSCIP statement at the moment. I will defend my name and reputation in a court.”
Shchyhol could not be immediately reached for comment.
Reuters first reported the departures. SSSCIP did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It’s not clear whether U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA, a close partner of the Ukrainian government and SSSCIP, was aware of the firing or given prior notice. A CISA spokesperson did not respond at the time of writing.
U.S. officials have long touted their close relationship with SSSCIP and Zhora, in particular. Zhora and CISA director Jen Easterly signed a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Ukrainian governments months after Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Zhora was most recently in the U.S. to give a keynote speech at cybersecurity conference Cyberwarcon. Earlier this year, Zhora and Easterly were interviewed together on stage at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai contributed reporting.
Cybercriminals who targeted Ukraine are actually Russian government hackers, researchers say
by tyler | Oct 23, 2023 | CNN, politics
As the search for a speaker continues, some House Republicans are already casting doubt over the future of the administration’s $105 billion security supplemental request for aid to Ukraine, Israel, the southern border and Taiwan, a major issue that any future speaker will have to contend with.
A number of Republican rank-and-file members in the House have made clear that the administration’s request won’t survive their chamber without changes and many House Republicans have already said that additional funding for border security isn’t enough without a policy overhaul, which would likely be a red line for many Senate Democrats.
“This is a hell no. And no one in the House GOP should support it. It’s asinine, unpaid for, ineffective and dangerous,” Rep. Chip Roy of Texas posted on X about the supplemental request.
Other Republicans who support parts of the request blasted the administration for trying to tie Israel funding to funding for Ukraine, which has seen cratering support in recent months.
“Israel deserves to have a conversation that is devoted to them right now,” Republican Rep. Mike Garcia of California, a defense appropriator, told CNN. “We need to strip out the Ukraine funding and we need to give the Israeli partners the respect they deserve.”
Even those who have backed Ukraine aid and have pledged to support it in the future want to understand why the administration is asking for so much.
“It seems like a lot,” Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said. “I’d like to see the breakout of the needs. I want to support it, but that seems like a lot of money.”
There is broad bipartisan support for Ukraine, but funding the military efforts there has become a flashpoint for conservatives and an issue that will likely bedevil a future speaker just as it had former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The administration’s request included more than $60 billion in assistance for Ukraine with over $14 billion for Israel. The Israel funding will likely move quickly in the House, but it’s very likely that the future speaker would decouple the requests so they are voted on individually.
The tightrope any future speaker will walk is that the Republican conference is divided over sending additional aid to Ukraine. On the one hand, hardliners derided McCarthy for his support of the country early on in the war and McCarthy had remained publicly noncommittal about putting a future aid package on the floor. But there are some members for whom support Ukraine is an essential issue.
“I support Ukraine and Israel. I think we should do both,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania said. “I think we should do whatever gets both of them across the finish line, whatever strategy works best. I don’t want to hold back one for the other. I support both.”
To this point, the supplemental request has been overshadowed by a chaotic search for House speaker, but it may come into focus soon as the Senate prepares to take up the request quickly.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has made clear he hopes to take up the supplemental request as soon as possible.
“This legislation is too important to wait for the House to settle their chaos. Senate Democrats will move expeditiously on this request, and we hope that our Republican colleagues across the aisle will join us to pass this much-needed funding,” Schumer said.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has scheduled a hearing for October 31 to review the request and will hear from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who are expected to testify and make the case for why the money is necessary.
But the House cannot begin to consider the legislation on the floor in any form until a speaker is selected.
by tyler | Oct 17, 2023 | CNN, economy
When war broke out in Ukraine last year, Federal Reserve officials were quick to speak about it.
“Let me comment on what I think is on everyone’s minds today: Russia’s attack on Ukraine,” Fed Governor Chris Waller said on February 24, 2022, hours after Russia invaded Ukraine.
“Obviously, there are people in harm’s way and we shouldn’t lose sight of them. It is far too early to judge how this conflict will affect the world, or the world economy, and what the implications will be for the US economy,” Waller said.
Now, there’s another war going on, between Israel and Hamas.
Yet in Waller’s first public appearance after Hamas invaded Israel last weekend, he did not acknowledge the tragedies that have unfolded.
In his second appearance since the war broke out, he said he doesn’t think there is a strong chance it will hurt the US economy unless there’s a major spillover effect that chills business and consumer sentiment.
Fed Vice Chairs Michael Barr and Philip Jefferson, Fed Governor Michelle Bowman and Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan all made public remarks last week. None made mention of the war in Israel.
Emma Jones, a spokesperson for the Fed, declined to comment on why many Fed officials, who in the past moved swiftly to acknowledge the war in Ukraine, weren’t addressing the war in Israel.
That shouldn’t be the case, James Dorn, a Fed policy expert and a senior fellow at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute, told CNN. “The Fed addresses climate change and diversity, you’d think they ought to address the seriousness of what’s going on in the Middle East,” he said.
There are some Fed officials who are starting to talk about it, though — albeit only when asked questions.
Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic was the first to speak about the war, at the American Bankers Association’s annual conference last Tuesday.
“My heart goes out to everyone who has been adversely affected by that situation,” he said, adding that, “it’s really troublesome.”
With regard to how the conflict will impact both the US and the global economy, Bostic said “this is just another new, unexpected thing that is going to cause everyone to have to rethink where our markets are going to be, where our partners are going to be.”
During a moderated discussion at Minot State University in North Dakota last week, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari didn’t address the conflict until the very end.
“The first mechanism by which geopolitical events — whether it’s Russia invading Ukraine, or the Hamas attack on Israel — affect the economy… is through commodity markets, through oil prices, first and foremost, but through other commodity markets as well,” he said.
“We saw huge price moves when Russia invaded Ukraine, so far much more muted moves around what’s happening in Israel,” he added.
Kashkari labeled the conflict a “human tragedy.”
Boston Fed President Susan Collins said that, “given the size of the US economy,” it is generally much more resilient to global shocks.
“Many of the impacts of the horrific events and what we’re seeing at the moment are beyond the economic ones,” Collins said during an event hosted at Wellesley College last Wednesday. Nevertheless, the conflict is something the Fed will take into account in its models that help officials make policy decisions, she said.
Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker said the US economy can still achieve a soft landing, a scenario where inflation retreats without pushing the economy into a recession.
“Now there’s a huge caveat that we’ve been hit time after time with shocks — proverbial ‘black swans’ that come out of left field that we don’t expect,” he said on Friday at an event hosted by the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce.
The war in Ukraine was one of those, he noted, and now it’s “this horrible situation we’re seeing in Israel and the Middle East more broadly.”
It’s unclear if the Israel-Hamas war will “more broadly” impact the global economy, Harker said.
While it may be true that a war between Israel and Hamas alone may not amount to much for the US economy, there’s a significant and growing risk it will escalate to a multinational war potentially involving Iran, Lebanon and Syria given the recent tensions among those nations.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon isn’t treating that lightly.
“Now may be the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades,” he said on the bank’s third-quarter earnings call last week. The war, he said, “may have far-reaching impacts on energy and food markets, global trade and geopolitical relationships.”
Dorn of the Cato Institute said Fed officials “have to think about the economic implications of this.”
One threat to the economy is if more countries — including the United States — impose stricter embargoes on Iranian oil. US sanctions on Iran are supposed to prevent Iranian oil from being sold in the United States, but traders have been able to find loopholes to get around it in the past.
Even so, Iran’s influence on the global oil market is limited. According to Kpler data, the country exported only about 1.4 million barrels a day of crude in the third quarter, accounting for a maximum of 1.4% of global supply.
By comparison, Russia was the world’s second-largest oil producer in 2021, according to Rystad Energy data. That’s why there was a much more immediate spike in gas prices across the globe after a slew of countries banned Russian oil imports after the invasion of Ukraine.
That’s probably why more Fed officials were quicker to acknowledge the war in Ukraine, Dorn said. But there’s more to it than that, he said.
“This is a much more emotional thing for a lot of people,” he said, referring to the war taking place in Israel and Gaza, whereas Ukraine had a lot of bipartisan support initially. “I don’t think the Fed wants to look like they’re taking sides,” Dorn added — but said Fed officials could easily talk about it without looking partial.
There’s also a more substantial risk that a multinational war spills over into the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway off Iran’s southern border through which 37% of global seaborne oil exports travel each day.
Any surge in oil prices that results from the war “would likely lead to more demand destruction than in 2022 when the economy was fiscally stimulated,” said Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon.
Higher gas prices, which are likely to cause consumers to cut back on spending in other areas, combined with the impact of all of the Fed’s rate hikes since March 2022, could cause the central bank to rethink further rate hikes entirely, Daco said.
