According to three persons with firsthand knowledge of the situation, Western security services are probing a cyber strike by unidentified hackers that crippled broadband satellite internet connection in Ukraine at the same time as Russia’s incursion.
Analysts from the US National Security Agency, the French government’s cyber security organisation ANSSI, and Ukrainian intelligence are determining whether the remote sabotage of a satellite internet provider’s service was the work of Russian-state-backed hackers preparing the battlefield by attempting to disrupt communications.
The digital blitz on the satellite service began on February 24 between 5 and 9 a.m., precisely as Russian soldiers began entering Ukraine and firing missiles, impacting key Ukrainian cities including Kyiv.
The ramifications are still being explored, but satellite modems belonging to tens of thousands of users in Europe were taken offline, according to an official of the affected network’s owner, US telecommunications corporation Viasat.
Hackers blocked modems that interact with Viasat’s KA-SAT satellite, which provides internet access to various European clients, including Ukraine. More than two weeks later some remain offline, resellers told Reuters.
According to contracts disclosed on ProZorro, a Ukrainian transparency portal, Ukraine’s military and security agencies have acquired numerous different communications systems that run through Viasat’s network during the last several years.
Stritecky, the Czech telecom CEO, stated that Viasat was not to blame.
He remembered arriving at work on the morning of the invasion and seeing a monitor that displayed regional satellite coverage in the Czech Republic, neighbouring Slovakia, and Ukraine, all in red.