Russian and Ukrainian emergency alert apps were hacked between Sunday and Monday, authorities in both countries said. It’s unclear whether the app hacks are related.
These apps warn the public about missiles, drones, and other threats.
However, far from spreading panic, the fake message seemed to have little impact on war-weary civilians, who instead began generating imaginative memes.
A message posted late Sunday on Ukraine’s public air raid app claimed the capital Kiev and other regions were under threat of nuclear and chemical alerts and urban warfare.
Another fake message said that Russia’s hypersonic Oreshnik missile had been deployed.
“The air warning app appears to have been influenced by the enemy,” the Ukrainian Air Force said on Telegram. “There is no radiation threat! Stay calm and follow the latest information on our channel!”
The app has recently been updated and now allows you to view drone movements in real time.
Stepan Tanashchuk, head of Ukraine’s Air Raid Warning Project, said on Monday that things were gradually recovering and new yellow and red warning levels were now available on the map.
“Our team is taking additional steps to ensure the safety of our app to prevent similar incidents in the future. We recognize how much unnecessary worry and inconvenience this has caused,” Tanashchuk said on Instagram.
In a separate incident, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry’s mobile app Emelcom suffered a “large-scale cyber attack” early Monday morning, resulting in “spreading of false information to the public,” state news agency TASS reported.
The ministry said the false alert was sent to 33 regions in Russia.
“A nuclear warhead on the P1-SUN delivery system has been launched across Russia,” the message claimed, adding an expletive-filled warning.
“The app is currently operational and full functionality will be restored by the end of the day,” the Ministry of Emergencies announced late Monday. “EMERCOM experts analyzed the incident and identified the vulnerabilities exploited by the attackers.”
The ministry downplayed the significance of the incident, saying warnings were being distributed through local government systems such as sirens, loudspeakers, SMS messages and media broadcasts.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that “all electronic resources belonging to our government institutions are constantly under threat of cyberattacks.”
“As technology, including AI, continues to evolve, the threat of cyberattacks increases,” he said.
It appears that very few people were fooled by the fake message. Some suggested that confidence in official warnings had been eroded.
One Russian user said he had deleted the Emercom app, saying: “I don’t install anything like that anymore. How can you leave an app like this vulnerable? Of course, it’s complete nonsense, but what if it wasn’t?”
One comment posted on Instagram by a Russian user of the app said the fake warning was “written in a way that makes it hard to believe it’s real.”
Another wrote: “It was difficult to believe such nonsense. … How could[the Ministry of Emergencies]allow this to happen… to allow themselves to be hacked?”
“When I wake up in the morning and open the thread, I see tons of posts like this,” another user commented. “But thankfully it’s fake!”
Some joked that they hadn’t even received a warning, with one person writing: “This information is reserved for the chosen ones. Don’t worry, you’re not important enough to be hacked.”
“I’m glad the mayor is a boxer,” one Kiev resident wrote in response to warnings about urban fighting.
Despite the subdued response, Ukrainian and Russian residents are well aware of the importance of reliable early warning systems as Moscow and Kiev continue their attacks and the United States continues its peace-brokering efforts.
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said Monday that the U.S. will mediate working-level negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi from Nov. 10 to 11. He posted on X that U.S. negotiators will also meet with representatives of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the European Union and NATO in Brussels this week to discuss Ukraine’s security.
Witkov’s announcement came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said at least 26 people had been killed in an “extremely horrific” Russian airstrike targeting a school used for humanitarian purposes.
As of Monday evening local time, search and rescue operations were underway in the village of Komisvaka in southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, with emergency workers working to locate a missing person who may be trapped under rubble.
“There should be a reaction to this, a reaction from the world. A strong and harsh reaction,” Zelenskiy wrote on X.
