Hackers send false nuclear warnings through Russian emergency app

Unidentified hackers broke into the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations' mobile application during the night of 1-2 November and used it to distribute a false nuclear threat warning. The app, which provides air raid alerts to the public, was still undergoing restoration work at 04:00, according to the ministry.

The account of the incident drew on statements from the ministry and reporting by Russian media outlet Astra. The ministry described the breach as a large cyberattack that had enabled the attackers to send false information to members of the public through its mobile application.

The fraudulent notification claimed that nuclear warheads were being launched on P1-SUN delivery systems across all Russian oblasts. It also instructed recipients to gather enough food for three weeks and seek shelter in basements. Those instructions formed part of the false alert distributed through the compromised app.

In its response, the ministry said work was underway to address the application's vulnerability and bring it back into normal operation. A further update at 04:00 said specialists were continuing efforts to restore its functionality. The attackers responsible for sending the fake notifications were not identified.

The ministry separately said Russia's public notification system was functioning normally. It maintained that the breach of the mobile application had neither affected that system nor had the capacity to do so, distinguishing the app incident from the operation of the wider public notification system.

The Russian incident followed a breach involving Ukraine's official Air Alarm application on the evening of 1 November. That application displayed messages in Russian warning of radiation and chemical hazards, street fighting and threats involving Oreshnik missiles. The incident was initially reported as an apparent hack.

Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation and State Emergency Service explained other ways for people to obtain current information about air raid alerts. The Air Alarm team subsequently confirmed that its application had been hacked and announced that the service would be suspended temporarily.

The Ukrainian application was later brought back into partial operation. Its developers also pledged to strengthen its security to prevent further cyberattacks. Meanwhile, the Russian ministry's early morning update continued to describe efforts to restore its own affected application.