Russia's Emergencies Ministry says its emergency alert app was hit by a massive cyberattack early on November 2, and fake warnings of a nuclear strike were...
Russia's Emergencies Ministry says its emergency alert app was hit by a massive cyberattack early on November 2, and fake warnings of a nuclear strike were pushed out to users.
The fake messages claimed nuclear warheads had been launched at Russian regions and told people to stock food for three weeks and hide in basements, according to screenshots circulating from the attack. The ministry confirmed the app was attacked and that false information spread, and said specialists were working to fix it.
The incident came hours after Ukraine's Air Alert app sent its own fake warnings on the evening of November 1, including radiation and chemical threats around Kyiv. Ukraine blamed Russia for that hack. A Ukrainian partisan group, ATESH, claimed the Russian app hack, but that claim has not been independently verified, and neither side's attribution is confirmed.
The pairing is the point: two countries at war saw their public warning systems turned against their own people within hours of each other. An alert system only works if people trust it instantly, and a fake nuclear warning trains them to hesitate next time.
#Global