Ukraine’s National Postal Service Ukrposhta Hacked Overnight

Ukrposhta, Ukraine’s national postal service, announced system malfunctions following a cyberattack overnight going into Thursday.

In a brief update, the state-run postal service said it is working to restore operations and would provide updates as they become available.

“Due to a nighttime hostile attack on IT systems, the Ukrposhta application is temporarily malfunctioning,” the update says.

“Our specialists are already working on the restoration. We are doing everything we can to ensure that you can return to convenient use of the application as soon as possible,” it adds.

Ukrposhta’s update made no mention of the nature of the cyberattack, the extent of the damage, or who was behind it.

Hybrid threats from Moscow

While no evidence points toward Russian involvement in the latest cyberattack, Russia has in the past hacked Ukrainian institutions before and after the 2022 invasion.

In 2017, Ukrainian institutions were hit by the malware known as “NotPetya.” The attack was spread through backdoor access to a widely used accounting software in Ukraine and disguised as ransomware, though its real purpose was to wipe data regardless of whether a ransom was paid. The UK government later said Russia – and specifically its military – was behind the attack.

In December 2023, Ukraine’s largest telecom operator, Kyivstar, was targeted in a cyberattack that led to an extensive network outage after parts of its IT infrastructure were wiped from its servers. Authorities later attributed the incident to Russian hackers.

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On Thursday, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), alongside the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, also said it uncovered a Russian state-sponsored cyber campaign targeting sensitive military, political, and economic information via phishing in the US, Ukraine and Europe.

Physical strikes on Ukraine’s postal services

Ukraine’s logistics infrastructure has also come under physical attacks in the ongoing Russian invasion.

In early June, a Russian attack on eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv damaged an Ukrposhta logistics hub. In November, an Ukrposhta branch was hit in western Ukraine’s Lviv, destroying over 900 parcels.

In mid-June, a Russian attack on Kyiv also destroyed the largest sorting terminal of Nova Poshta, Ukraine’s largest private postal service. The terminal, built in 2021 at a cost of approximately €30 million ($35 million), was leveled in the attack.