The Kyiv Independent hit by a cyberattack that sent false nuclear attack alerts to its readers

The Ukrainian English-language newspaper The Kyiv Independent suffered a cyberattack on November 4 that altered its website and sent some of its readers emails with false claims in Russian and English, the outlet itself reported. The attackers accessed the website's content management system and one of the services it uses to send newsletters.

According to the newspaper, the first email went out at 1:00, Kyiv time, and falsely claimed that Zelensky had launched a nuclear warhead at Kyiv; in Russian, it urged recipients to take shelter. At around 14:30 a second email in Russian arrived while the website was under attack, and at 15:05 another in English followed by one more in Russian: four in total. The attackers posted similar messages on the website, which the newsroom deleted immediately.

The outlet says the banking details of its members and donors are not at risk, because payments are handled by external platforms. It has not given the number of readers who received the emails.

The Kyiv Independent describes it as a "suspected" Russian attack: it infers this from the content of the messages and their similarity to the hacking, days earlier, of the Ukrainian air raid alert app. It does not cite an official investigation or a technical analysis attributing it. Its editor-in-chief, Olga Rudenko, said it is the first time such an attack has happened to them.