- Published
Ukrainians have grown weary of the relentless alerts blaring from their phones and echoing through their streets, day and night, warning of Russian drones and missiles.
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Ukrainians → publish → drones
On Sunday night, the system delivered something to make them sit up and take note – a succession of more extreme threats that quickly escalated to impending nuclear strikes, chemical attacks and combat on the streets.
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that → deliver → streets
But many in the country did not take them seriously and doubted the veracity of the messages.
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many → take → messages
Sofia Kochmar, 34, a mother-of-one living in the western city of Lviv, said she was initially concerned but quickly questioned the authenticity of the alerts.
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she → live → alerts
"The first thing I saw was the word 'nuclear' and that made me pretty nervous and scared.
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me → see → ?
So my first thought was that something nuclear was actually flying toward us."
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something → fly → us
"But then the notification mentioned 'street fighting in Kyiv', and I thought, wait, no, that's impossible."
The alerts included some messages written in Russian, and one included a link to a Telegram channel apparently owned by a hacker group.
Within 15 minutes, Ukraine's Air Force issued a statement saying the alert app had been compromised and clarifying there was no radiation threat.
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app → mention → statement
But it took more than an hour to issue "all clear" messages.
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it → take → messages
Anastasiia Romanytska, a 29-year-old ballerina living in Kyiv, said she does not have the alert app installed but friends forwarded her the warnings.
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friends → live → warnings
But then my body reacted as if I was under stress.
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I → react → stress
My heart started racing, and my stomach tightened up."
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stomach → start → ?
"Still, somehow I immediately realised that it wasn't something serious.
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it → realise → ?
Or maybe I just really wanted to believe that."
There are a number of apps delivering phone notifications of air raid warnings, with maps showing areas under threat, all using the same data as the official government-backed app.
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all → want → app
Yevhen Baliutov, a cybersecurity expert at Kyiv School of Economics, told the BBC it was clear to him the Ukrainian alert system was hacked by Russians, saying many Ukrainians had clicked a link included with the alerts leading to a Russian Telegram channel, potentially exposing them to further disinformation, phishing attempts or data breaches.
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Ukrainians → tell → disinformation
"This is a war, so it's no surprise that Russia will try to hack, will try to send us fake news, will try to manipulate, and will use that for their propaganda.
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Russia → try → propaganda
While both Russia and Ukraine are widely believed to carry out cyberattacks against one another, the informal language used in the hoax alerts on Sunday pointed to so-called hacktivist groups, which could be aligned to Moscow or Kyiv but are not formally directed by either government.
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which → believe → government
Baliutov said it was also logical that Ukraine would have responded by launching a cyber-attack on the Russian emergency alert system.
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Ukraine → say → system
Both sides have similar capabilities in cyber warfare, he added.
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he → have → warfare
Kochmar said after the initial concern, Ukrainians quickly turned to joking about the incident.
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Ukrainians → say → incident
"All our work group chats immediately blew up.
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chats → blow → ?
Everyone started messaging each other, discussing what was happening.
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what → message → other
And what I found fascinating was how quickly we turned the whole thing into a joke."
Although the impact of this incident had been limited, it illustrated the weakness of a crucial system, Baliutov said.
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Baliutov → find → system
When developing such applications, we need to consider security from the very beginning, without skipping essential security measures.
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we → develop → measures
When millions of people rely on a service, we cannot afford to take shortcuts with security."
The authorities already faced the challenge of maintaining public alertness after four and a half years of war with ceaseless attack warnings sounding sometimes hourly.
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warnings → rely → war
Now they must reassure people the systems in place to protect them are robust, trustworthy and should be followed.
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systems → reassure → them
The Aporia
