The US National Security Agency is reportedly investigating a hack targeting Viasat that disrupted internet access in Ukraine as Russian forces prepared to invade the country.
Viasat told CNBC on Feb. 28 that it was “experiencing a partial network outage” said to be “impacting internet service for fixed broadband customers in Ukraine and elsewhere on our European KA-SAT network.” The outage started on Feb. 24—the day Russia invaded Ukraine.
Reuters now reports that the NSA is collaborating with ANSSI and Ukrainian intelligence to determine “whether the remote sabotage of a satellite internet provider’s service was the work of Russian-state backed hackers preparing the battlefield by attempting to sever communications.”
Viasat told Reuters the outage affected satellite modems owned by tens of thousands of customers in Europe. Some of those modems are still offline at time of writing, according to the report, and bringing them back online is going to be a fairly involved process.
Reuters reports that a Viasat official “said most of the affected devices would need to be reprogrammed either by a technician on site or at a repair depot and that some would have to be swapped out.” Russia’s ongoing attacks on Ukraine will likely complicate that process.
In the meantime, Ukraine has turned to services like Starlink to remain online, although SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has warned that Russia might attack its satellite internet service as well so it can sever Ukraine’s connection to the outside world as it seeks international aid in this conflict.
