Ukrainians suffered due to the division of assets: why did the mobile operator have problems?

Who carried out large-scale sabotage

In Ukraine, they continue to restore the network of the mobile operator Kyivstar, which was badly damaged due to a hacker attack. The Security Service of the Republic (SBU) and a team of American specialists from Microsoft, urgently invited to “patch the holes,” unanimously state: such a powerful attack on a large Internet provider has never been recorded anywhere. One of the versions voiced by Ukrainian counterintelligence investigators: “Russian special services may be involved” in the large-scale communication failure. The SBU opened proceedings under eight articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine at once.

Subscribers began to experience communication problems a week ago. Kyivstar is the largest existing company; it provides mobile and Internet communication services to approximately 24 million citizens of Ukraine. The second president of the republic, Leonid Kuchma, has a direct connection to the transformation into a kind of “Web monster”. Elena Kuchma, the daughter of the second president of the country, worked at Kyivstar from 1997 to 2002 as deputy director of marketing. It was during this time period that the company gained a huge number of clients, displacing other competitors into second roles.

Of course, the governors appointed by Kuchma did their best to consolidate the dominant role of Kyivstar. Sometimes things got funny. For example, in part of the Vasilkovsky district of the Kyiv region, local residents were faced with a choice: either pay their hard-earned money exclusively to Kyivstar, or be left without mobile communications altogether.

The company is now owned by Russian oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Andrei Kosogov. These same businessmen, plus Pyotr Aven, bought the Life company, part of the Turkcel company, from Rinat Akhmetov.

The failure of the largest Ukrainian mobile operator led not only to widespread short beeps when trying to call somewhere. In a number of regions, problems immediately arose with the functioning of air raid warning systems, contactless payment and fares on public transport.

The MK correspondent also felt what it was like to be left without the usual connection. In particular, on December 13 it was impossible to top up a bank card at the terminal. Before inserting hryvnia banknotes into the receiver, an SMS must be sent to the Kyivstar number, the last four digits of which must be entered to continue the transaction. Since there is no connection, there is no opportunity to deposit money into an ATM. I had to do it through the cash register. But again, not without problems. About 20 minutes later, having picked up a full basket of food at the supermarket opposite, I heard at the checkout: “Insufficient funds…”. “I recently topped up my account with 500 hryvnia!” – “Contact the bank! We have nothing to do with him.”

Fifty thousand hryvnia really “did not dissolve in space.” True, I found out about this only the next morning. By going to the official website of the bank. We had to pay for goods in the store in cash.

By the way, the SMS has not reached my phone to this day. Although, as the mobile operator company noted on its page on the social network, “the operation of the mobile Internet throughout the country and in the vast majority of mobile communication base stations has been completely restored.”

In this regard, photographic evidence of the picketing of the Kyiv City Council building appeared in some social networks. In the hands of angry women one could see posters with reproaches against… Vitali Klitschko. The mayor, according to the protesters, deliberately deprived Kiev residents of communications.

For some reason, these ladies did not accuse President Vladimir Zelensky and the Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mikhail Fedorov of anything. Moreover, from the very first days of their stay at the highest levels of power, both characters never tired of promising gullible voters the accelerated creation of a “state in a smartphone” and “complete digitalization of Ukraine.” The very first hacker attack on Kyivstar proved the fragility of their words.

The author of these lines, in addition to Kyivstar, has the opportunity to use the services of other operators – Life and Vodafone. Most Ukrainians, as soon as they learned about the hacker attack on Kyivstar, rushed to buy SIM cards from other mobile communication companies. In just two and a half days, Kyivstar’s competitors sold out a month’s supply of numbers. The country’s authorities, taking into account the possibility of repeated hackers’ tricks, hinted at the possibility of transferring part of the Kyivstar towers to Vodafone and Life. They say that the workload of the latter has increased sharply, and they need help.

Some social media users believe that attributing the recent disruption in the work of Kyivstar to “Russian machinations” is unproductive. They say that in Ukraine there is a fierce battle for the chance to take over a highly profitable company. It especially worsened after the introduction of new sanctions against Mikhail Fridman on October 8. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out that Kyivstar was actually attacked from the inside. That is, “large-scale sabotage” was carried out by our own people. Not the Russians.