Fake warnings of nuclear attack posted on hacked Russian and Ukrainian emergency apps

By Tim Lister, Svitlana Vlasova and Anna Chernova, CNN

(CNN) — Emergency warning apps in Russia and Ukraine were hacked overnight Sunday into Monday, according to authorities in both countries. It’s not clear whether the hacking of the apps is linked.

The apps warn the public of missile, drone and other threats.

But rather than spread panic, the fake messages appear to have had little impact on war-weary civilians – and instead began to generate some imaginative memes.

The messages posted on Ukraine’s public air raid app late on Sunday claimed that the capital Kyiv and other areas were subject to nuclear ⁠and chemical alerts as well as the threat of street combat.

Another fake message said Russia’s ⁠hypersonic Oreshnik missile had been deployed.

“The air alert app appears to have been subjected to enemy influence,” the Ukrainian air force said ‌on Telegram. “There ⁠is no radiation threat! Stay calm and follow our updates on our channel!”

The app had been recently updated to show the movement of drones in real time.

Stepan Tanasiychuk, who leads Ukraine’s Air Raid Alert project, said Monday it was gradually being restored, with new yellow and red alert levels currently available on the map.

“The team is taking additional measures to secure the app in order to prevent similar situations in the future, Tanasiychuk said on Instagram. “We realise how much unnecessary worry and inconvenience this has caused.”

In a separate event, ⁠the mobile app of Russia’s emergencies ministry – Emercom – was hit by a “massive cyberattack” early Monday that resulted in ⁠”the spread of false information to the public,” state news agency TASS quoted ⁠the ‌ministry as saying.

A fake alert was sent to 33 Russian regions, the ministry said.

The message claimed that “NUCLEAR WARHEADS ON P1-SUN DELIVERY SYSTEMS have been launched across ALL regions of Russia,” and added an expletive-laden warning.

“The app is currently operational, and its full functionality will be restored by the end of the day,” the emergencies ministry said later Monday. “EMERCOM specialists have analyzed the incident and identified the vulnerability exploited by the attacker.”

The ministry played down the significance of the incident, saying that alerts are distributed through regional and municipal systems such as sirens and loudspeakers, SMS messages and media broadcasts.

“All electronic resources belonging to our government agencies are under constant threat of cyberattacks,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.

“As technologies, including AI, continue to evolve, the threat of cyberattacks is growing,” he said.

Few people appear to have fallen for the false messages. Some suggested it had undermined their trust in official warnings.

One Russian user said they had deleted the Emercom app “and I won’t be installing anything like that again. How can they leave apps like this vulnerable? It’s complete nonsense, of course, but what if it weren’t?”

Among comments on Instagram among Russian users of the app, one said the fake alert “was written in such a way that it’s impossible to believe it’s real.”

Another wrote: “It was hard to believe such nonsense. … How did (the Emergencies ministry) even let this happen.. let themselves get hacked.”

“You wake up, open Threads and see tons of posts like this,” another commented. “BUT THANKFULLY IT’S FAKE!”

Others joked that they had not even received the warning, with one writing: “This information was reserved for the chosen ones, don’t worry, you’re not important enough to be hacked.”

One resident of Kyiv responded to the alert about street fighting by posting: “Good thing our mayor is a boxer.”

Despite the lighthearted responses, residents in Ukraine and Russia know all too well the importance of reliable early warning systems, as Moscow and Kyiv continue to trade strikes.

Ukrainian authorities said Monday that at least 24 people were killed in a Russian aerial bomb attack which the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said targeted a school used for humanitarian purposes.

As of Monday evening local time, dozens remained missing after the attack on a village in southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.

“There must be a response to this – a response from the world. A strong and tough response,” Zelensky posted on X.

The-CNN-Wire
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