Fake warnings of nuclear attack posted on hacked Russian and Ukrainian emergency apps

Danylo Antoniuk/ Ukrinform/Future Publishing/Getty Images

Emergency warning apps in Russia and Ukraine were hacked on Sunday, according to authorities in both countries. It’s not clear whether the hacking of the apps is linked.

The apps warn the public of missile, drone and other threats.

But rather than spread panic, the fake messages appear to have had little impact on war-weary civilians – and instead began to generate some imaginative memes.

The messages posted on Ukraine’s public air raid app late on Sunday claimed that the capital Kyiv and other areas were subject to nuclear ⁠and chemical alerts as well as the threat of street combat.

Another fake message said Russia’s ⁠hypersonic Oreshnik missile had been deployed.

“The air alert app appears to have been subjected to enemy influence,” the Ukrainian air force said ‌on Telegram. “There ⁠is no radiation threat! Stay calm and follow our updates on our channel!”

The app had been recently updated to show the movement of drones in real time.

Stepan Tanasiychuk, who leads Ukraine’s Air Raid Alert project, said Monday it was gradually being restored, with new yellow and red alert levels currently available on the map.

“The team is taking additional measures to secure the app in order to prevent similar situations in the future, Tanasiychuk said on Instagram. “We realise how much unnecessary worry and inconvenience this has caused.”

In a separate event, ⁠the mobile app of Russia’s emergencies ministry – Emercom - was hit by a “massive cyberattack” that resulted in ⁠”the spread of false information to the public,” state news agency TASS quoted ⁠the ‌ministry as saying.

One of the fake messages, which appeared on the app in the Moscow region as well as in areas across Russia, claimed that “NUCLEAR WARHEADS ON P1-SUN DELIVERY SYSTEMS have been launched across ALL regions of Russia.”

It then added an expletive-laden warning.

Efforts to address the vulnerability and restore normal operation are underway, the ministry said. It played down the significance of the incident, saying that alerts are distributed through regional and municipal systems such as sirens and loudspeakers, SMS messages and media broadcasts.

“All electronic resources belonging to our government agencies are under constant threat of cyberattacks,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.

“As technologies, including AI, continue to evolve, the threat of cyberattacks is growing,” he said .

Few people appear to have fallen for the false messages. Some suggested it had undermined their trust in official warnings.

One Russian user said they had deleted the Emercom app “and I won’t be installing anything like that again. How can they leave apps like this vulnerable? It’s complete nonsense, of course, but what if it weren’t?”

Among comments on Instagram among Russian users of the app, one said the fake alert “was written in such a way that it’s impossible to believe it’s real.”

Another wrote: “It was hard to believe such nonsense. … How did (the Emergencies ministry) even let this happen.. let themselves get hacked.”

“You wake up, open Threads and see tons of posts like this,” another commented. “BUT THANKFULLY IT’S FAKE!”

Others joked that they had not even received the warning, with one writing: “This information was reserved for the chosen ones, don’t worry, you’re not important enough to be hacked.”

One resident of Kyiv responded to the alert about street fighting by posting: “Good thing our mayor is a boxer.”

Another social media post made up a long list of additional threats, including:

“Cat invasion — Cats are taking over the city. Hide the sausages. Pancake emergency — The city has run out of pancakes. Stay home. Clown attack — Clowns have been spotted in the city. Do not go outside without a mask. Alien invasion — UFOs are approaching Earth. Prepare for contact.”

Danylo Antoniuk/Ukrinform/Future Publishing/Getty Images

据俄乌两国当局称，两国紧急预警应用程序周日遭到黑客攻击。目前尚不清楚这两起黑客攻击事件是否有关联。

这些应用程序会向公众发出导弹、无人机和其他威胁的警告。

但这些虚假信息并没有引起恐慌，反而对饱受战争蹂躏的平民百姓产生了不大的影响，反而开始催生一些富有想象力的表情包。

周日晚些时候，乌克兰公共空袭应用程序上发布的消息称，首都基辅和其他地区处于核生化警报之下，并面临巷战威胁。

另一条虚假消息称，俄罗斯的高超音速“奥列什尼克”导弹已经部署。

乌克兰空军在Telegram上表示：“空中警报应用程序似乎受到了敌方影响。不存在辐射威胁！请保持冷静，并关注我们频道上的最新消息！”

该应用程序最近进行了更新，可以实时显示无人机的移动情况。

乌克兰空袭警报项目负责人斯捷潘·塔纳西丘克周一表示，该系统正在逐步恢复，目前地图上已显示新的黄色和红色警报级别。

“团队正在采取额外措施来确保应用程序的安全，以防止未来发生类似情况，”塔纳西丘克在Instagram上表示。“我们意识到这给大家带来了多少不必要的担忧和不便。”

另据报道，俄罗斯紧急情况部移动应用程序 Emercom 遭到“大规模网络攻击”，导致“虚假信息向公众传播”，俄罗斯国家通讯社塔斯社援引该部的话报道称。

其中一条虚假消息出现在莫斯科地区以及俄罗斯各地的应用程序上，声称“P1-SUN运载系统上的核弹头已在俄罗斯所有地区发射”。

然后，它又添加了一条带有脏话的警告信息。

该部表示，目前正在努力解决安全漏洞并恢复正常运行。该部淡化了此次事件的严重性，称警报会通过区域和市政系统发布，例如警报器、扬声器、短信和媒体广播。

克里姆林宫发言人德米特里·佩斯科夫周一表示：“我们政府机构的所有电子资源都面临着网络攻击的持续威胁。”

“随着包括人工智能在内的技术的不断发展，网络攻击的威胁也在不断增加，”他说。

似乎很少有人轻信这些虚假信息。有人表示，这削弱了他们对官方警告的信任。

一位俄罗斯用户表示，他已经删除了Emercom应用程序，“以后再也不会安装类似的软件了。他们怎么能让这样的应用程序存在安全漏洞？这当然很荒谬，但万一并非如此呢？”

在 Instagram 上俄罗斯用户的评论中，有一位用户表示，这条虚假警报“写得如此离谱，让人难以置信它是真的”。

另一位网友写道：“简直难以置信这种荒唐事……（紧急情况部）怎么会允许这种事情发生……竟然让自己被黑客攻击。”

“你醒来打开Threads，就会看到一大堆这样的帖子，”另一位网友评论道。“但谢天谢地，这些都是假的！”

其他人则开玩笑说他们甚至没有收到警告，其中一人写道：“这些信息只留给被选中的人，别担心，你没重要到会被黑客攻击。”

基辅一位居民在看到有关街头斗殴的警报后发帖回应道：“幸好我们的市长是拳击手。”

另一条社交媒体帖子列出了一长串其他威胁，其中包括：

“猫咪入侵——猫咪占领了城市。快藏好香肠。煎饼危机——城市里的煎饼已经卖光了。待在家里。小丑袭击——有人在城市里发现了小丑。出门一定要戴口罩。外星人入侵——不明飞行物正在接近地球。做好接触准备。”