The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine has restored the operation of three key notarial registries after a hacker attack on the services on December 19.
Specialists have set up the Unified Register of Powers of Attorney, the Register of Inheritance, and the Unified Register of Special Forms of Notarial Documents. Powers of attorney, wills, and inheritance cases will be registered in the usual manner.
From now on, notaries can fully register powers of attorney, wills, and inheritance cases, as well as verify special forms, the Ministry of Justice says.
"All notarial actions that were performed when there was no access to the registers will be recorded within five working days. Enhanced cyber protection measures have been implemented," the department added.
What preceded this
A massive attack on the resources of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine took place on December 19. This is one of the largest attacks by the enemy in recent times. The attackers planned to disrupt the work of critically important infrastructure, said the head of the department, Olga Stefanyshyna.
The work of all registers was suspended for security reasons. The SBU 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 are investigating whether there was a data leak.
Oleksandr Fedienko, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence, believes that the cyberattack on the Ministry of Justice could have been carried out using phishing or bribing employees who had access to the registers.