Ukraine alerts app hacked, false nuclear threat messages cause public alarm
A Ukrainian civil defence alert app was compromised, sending false warnings of nuclear and chemical attacks; the air force denied any radiation threat and cleared the alerts after about an hour.
Ukraine's civil defence alert system was hacked on Sunday night, causing the app to broadcast false warnings of imminent nuclear strikes, chemical attacks and street combat. The messages, some written in Russian and containing a link to a Telegram channel, prompted anxiety among residents before the authenticity was questioned.
Within 15 minutes, the Ukrainian Air Force issued a statement confirming that the alert app had been compromised and that there was no radiation danger. An "all clear" notice was sent more than an hour later.
Sofia Kochmar, 34, from Lviv, said the word "nuclear" initially made her nervous, while Kyiv resident Anastasiia Romanytska, 29, described a physical stress reaction before concluding the alerts were not serious.
"The first thing I saw was the word 'nuclear' and that made me pretty nervous and scared," Kochmar said. "My first reaction was, 'Is this some kind of joke?' But then my body reacted as if I was under stress," Romanytska said.
Cybersecurity expert Yevhen Baliutov of the Kyiv School of Economics explained that many users clicked the malicious link, exposing them to potential disinformation, phishing or data breaches. He noted that hacktivist groups often use informal language in such hoaxes and that both Russia and Ukraine engage in cyber-operations against each other.
Baliutov warned that the incident highlighted vulnerabilities in critical public-safety applications, emphasizing the need for robust security measures from the outset.
"It's very dangerous for Ukraine and for our people. When developing such applications, we need to consider security from the very beginning, without skipping essential security measures," he said.