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The massive cyber attack carried out by specialists from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine at the end of May led to the temporary disconnection of communication for at least 250,000 subscribers in temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, primarily in occupied Crimea.
According to unian.net, representatives of Russian providers have called this attack the most powerful DDoS attack they have ever encountered.
“Ivan Zima, CEO of one of the Russian telecommunications operators, stated that it took providers at least 16 hours to partially restore communication. However, a significant number of subscribers remained without communication for over two days. The attack affected both subscriber networks and the networks of operators using the compromised infrastructure. Providers faced difficulties communicating with subscribers during the restoration process. Concerned about traditional Russian fraud, subscribers refused to provide their current contact information to providers. Additionally, 20% of subscribers declined network equipment upgrades that could protect them from future attacks,” reported the agency spokesperson.
According to sources, providers had to enlist hundreds of additional technical specialists to handle numerous complaints from dissatisfied clients.
One of the most affected providers was the telecom operator “Miranda Media”. Subscribers of this provider not only lost communication but also couldn’t make payments for services due to damage to the billing system.