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Ukrzaliznytsia Cyberattack Disrupts Online Ticket Sales but Train Services Remain Unaffected

 

Ukraine’s national railway operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, has fallen victim to a large-scale cyberattack, severely disrupting its online ticket sales and forcing passengers to rely on physical ticket booths. The attack, which began on March 23, has caused significant delays, long queues, and overcrowding at train stations as people struggle to secure their travel arrangements. Despite the disruption to digital services, train schedules have remained unaffected, ensuring that rail transportation across the country continues without major interruptions.

In response to the attack, Ukrzaliznytsia has taken steps to mitigate the inconvenience by deploying additional staff at ticket offices to accommodate the surge in demand. However, the company acknowledged that waiting times remain long and urged passengers not to overcrowd sales points unnecessarily. To ensure that military personnel are not affected by the disruption, they have been granted the option to purchase tickets directly from train conductors. Meanwhile, civilians who had bought their tickets online before the cyberattack are advised to use the PDF copies sent to their email or arrive at the station early to seek assistance from railway officials. 

Ukrzaliznytsia confirmed the cyberattack in an official statement across multiple communication platforms, apologizing for the inconvenience caused to passengers. The company emphasized that, despite the challenges, train operations were running smoothly and schedules had not been impacted. Officials noted that prior experience with cyberattacks had helped strengthen the railway’s response mechanisms, allowing it to implement backup protocols that ensured continuity of service. 

However, online ticket sales remain unavailable as efforts continue to restore affected systems. Describing the attack as highly systematic and multi-layered, Ukrzaliznytsia stated that it was working closely with cybersecurity specialists from Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) and the Government Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA) to identify vulnerabilities and strengthen its defenses. While the company did not specify the origin of the attack, cyber threats targeting Ukrainian infrastructure have been a persistent issue since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Both state agencies and private companies have faced frequent cyber incidents, highlighting the growing challenges in securing critical infrastructure. 

Despite the cyberattack, Ukrzaliznytsia remains committed to maintaining uninterrupted rail service. The company reassured passengers that its backup systems were in place to handle such incidents, ensuring that transportation across Ukraine and beyond continues without disruption. However, no specific timeline has been given for when online ticketing services will be fully restored, leaving passengers to rely on in-person ticket purchases for the foreseeable future.

Prior to Cyber Attack, Russian Attackers Spent Months Inside the Ukraine Telecoms Giant

 

Kyivstar experienced a large-scale malfunction in December 2023, resulting in the outage of mobile communications and the internet for about 24 million users for several days. 

How? Russian hackers broke into the Ukrainian telecommunications giant's system in May 2023. Ilya Vityuk, the chief of the Security Service of Ukraine's (SBU) cyber security department, told Reuters that the attack's aim was to inflict a psychological blow on the public and gather intelligence information. 

“This attack is a big message, a big warning, not only to Ukraine, but for the whole Western world to understand that no one is actually untouchable,” stated Vityuk. He said that hundreds of virtual servers and PCs were among the "almost everything" that the attack destroyed. 

Reuters writes this is most likely the first instance of a catastrophic cyberattack that destroyed a telecoms operator's core. This happened despite Kyivstar's significant investment in cyber security. The SBU discovered that hackers attempted to break into Kyivstar in March or earlier. 

“Now we can say [with certainty] that they were in the system at least since May 2023,” Vityuk added. “I cannot say right now, from when they had... full access: probably at least since November.” 

He leaves open the possibility that during the attack, Russian hackers may have located phones, intercepted SMS conversations, stolen personal information, and possibly stolen Telegram accounts. 

Kyivstar disputes the SBU's assessment of potential breaches, claiming that customer data was not exposed. The SBU further revealed that attempts continued to launch additional cyber attacks to inflict greater harm even after the provider's operations were resumed. 

The damage of the provider's system makes it difficult to investigate the situation at this time. However, the SBU thinks that a gang of Sandworm hackers, a cyberwarfare unit of Russian military intelligence, may have been responsible for the attack. 

According to Vityuk, SBU investigators are still trying to figure out how Kyivstar was hacked and what kind of tools or software might have been used to get inside the system. They also indicated that it might have been phishing, insider help, or something else entirely. 

Vityuk claims that because the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) employ "different algorithms and protocols" and do not depend on consumer-level communication carriers, the cyberattack had no effect on them. 

Fortunately, this incident didn't have a significant impact on us in terms of missile and drone detection, he concluded. The SBU issues a warning, stating that there's a chance that Russian hackers might try to attack Ukrainian cell operators again.