Satellite firm Viasat investigates Ukraine broadband cyberattack following Russian invasion

Satellite communications firm Viasat said this morning that it would be investigating a suspected cyberattack that caused a partial outage in its residential broadband services in Ukraine and across Europe.

The US-listed company said a third-party cybersecurity firm was looking into causes of an outage across KA-SAT network, which provides high-speed satellite internet coverage in Europe and Mediterranean markets.

An insider told Mark Kleinman for Sky News that early indications suggested that the outage was caused by the distributed denial of service (DDos) attack, which struck Ukrainian banks and government sites shortly before the Russian invasion last week.

“Our investigation into the outage continues, but so far we believe it was caused by a cyber event,” Viasat said in a statement, adding that it was not immediately clear if customer data was involved.

“We are investigating and analysing our European network and systems to identify the root cause and are taking additional network precautions to prevent further impacts while we attempt to recover service to affected customers.

“Law enforcement and government partners have been notified and are assisting in the ongoing investigation, along with a third-party cybersecurity firm.”

However, Viasat stated that there was “no indication that customer data is involved”.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has accused the West of making unfounded accusations against Russia of cyber warfare, suggesting it was a ploy to mar its name. Indeed, President Putin’s government website was down on Saturday, which it cited as a cyber hack.

Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Ukraine are set to create an “IT army” to fight against Russia’s digital intrusions.