Russian emergency app hit with fake nuclear alert after Ukraine hack

Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry, known as MChS, said early on Monday that its mobile app had been hit by a "massive cyberattack" and that the attackers had used it to send "fake information to the population." The statement, posted at 03:30 Moscow time, said the ministry was working to fix "the vulnerability of the mobile app" and restore it. Users received an alert warning of a nuclear strike, BNO News reported, and the state news agency TASS carried the ministry's account.

The attack came hours after Ukraine's Air Alert app sent its own false warnings of radiation, chemical threats and street fighting on Sunday night, including a Russian-language message about an Oreshnik missile strike. Ukraine's government blamed Russia for that attack. No group has claimed either one, and neither government has said how its app was compromised.

The app, not the sirens

The two governments drew the same line. In a second statement, the Russian ministry said the national warning system "is functioning normally" and that the app breach "did not and cannot affect" it. Alerts still go out through regional and municipal sirens and loudspeakers, SMS and television and radio, it said, and the app "is only an additional, auxiliary information service." Ukraine's State Emergency Service said the same about its own sirens on Sunday, after its Air Alert app, built by the private companies Ajax Systems and Stfalcon, was taken offline.

In both countries the official alert channels were unaffected, while a phone app run alongside them was used to push messages to its users. The Russian ministry said its specialists were taking all necessary measures to restore the app and that "the situation is under control," and asked people to stay calm and trust only official sources.

Neither ministry has said how many people received the false alerts or whether any data was taken.