Russian cyberattack on state registers: Ministry of Justice did not confirm data leak. SBU opened proceedings

Author:
Anastasiia Mohylevets
Date:

The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine does not confirm a data leak as a result of a hacker attack on state registries on December 19. The work of all registries was suspended for security reasons.

This was reported by the head of the Ministry of Justice Olha Stefanyshyna at a briefing on December 20.

The system will be restored on December 23, and efforts will be made to restore the system within two weeks. The attack did not affect resources not related to the ministry, including “Diia”, the official said.

"First of all, the registers that provide accounting for the actions of notaries will be restored. The first priority for us is the restoration of the Register of Real Rights to Real Estate and the Register of Legal Entities and Individuals," says Stefanyshyna.

She assured that there are no restrictions on the registration of birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates. They will be temporarily drawn up on paper. The Ministry of Justice website will inform which civil registration departments can be contacted in Ukraine.

Applications for some payments will be considered after the registers are restored, Stefanyshyna added. For a while, notaries will work with wills without access to the registers.

"Our servers are not located in one location. This was a massive attack on the entire infrastructure, it was being prepared for months," the head of the ministry added.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has opened proceedings under Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — violation of the laws and customs of war. The main version is considered to be the involvement of the Russian GRU hacker group in the cyberattack. SBU representatives cannot yet deny the data leak — they are conducting a corresponding investigation.

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.