The application "Air Alert" in Ukraine has temporarily suspended work after unauthorized interference in the system. Its team confirmed that push notifications are disabled while work is being done to restore the service.
“Today, external parties carried out unauthorized interference in the operation of the application. We have disabled push notifications and temporarily suspended the application“, the team said. The developers assured that the service does not store users' personal data and no threat to them has been identified. They warned against opening links from suspicious notifications.
Fake warnings about radiation and street fighting
The incident began on the evening of November 1. Users in Kiev received messages about radiation and chemical hazards, as well as street fighting. A missile strike warning was displayed across Ukraine. One of the messages in Russian claimed that a “nuclear alert“ was imminent“ and mentioned the “Oreshnik“ missile.
The Ukrainian Air Force said there was no radiation threat. “The application was probably subjected to hostile influence. There is no radiation threat“, their statement said.
According to information from Ukrainian authorities, the sirens were not triggered because of the fake notifications. The State Emergency Service reported that the state-wide notification system is operating normally and that danger signals continue to be transmitted to regional administrations and street systems.
How to monitor danger signals
The Ministry of Digital Transformation recommended that citizens turn on the system's emergency notifications on their phones. The official sources of information are the channels of the Ukrainian Air Force, local authorities and siren signals.
For residents of Kiev, notifications in the "Kiev Digital" application continue to work. The "Air Alert" team did not specify a deadline for the full restoration of the application.
Sources: pravda.com.ua, ukrinform.ua, kyivindependent.com