US intelligence agencies are investigating the actions of hackers who disrupted satellite broadband internet in Ukraine, at the same time as Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Analysts from the US-owned National Security Agency, France's ANSSI and Ukrainian intelligence services are working together to investigate whether the satellite sabotage was the work of Russian hackers, who were trying to cut off communications in Ukraine.
The disruption to satellite internet service occurred on February 24 between 5 and 9 am. This coincided with the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The impact of this further attack is still being investigated, but it is clear that the modems belonging to tens of thousands of consumers in Europe became inoperable as a result of the attack. This was confirmed by an employee at Viasat, a US telecommunications company whose network was affected.
In the attack, hackers succeeded in turning off the modem connected to Viasat's KA-SAT satellite, which is the backbone of internet connections for a number of its customers in Europe, including Ukraine.
In fact, the modem was still unable to operate until two weeks after the attack occurred.
Why are the authorities investigating this? This has something to do with Viasat, which is a defense contractor for both the United States and its allies.
Under the contract seen by Reuters, the KA-SAT is also used to provide internet connection by the Ukrainian military and police.
According to Pablo Breuer, a former technology expert at the US special operations command (SOCOM), breaking satellite internet connections would hamper the Ukrainian military's ability to deal with a Russian invasion.
"Traditional earth-based radio has limited coverage. If you're using modern smart systems, smart weapons, trying to combine them with maneuvering weapons, then you have to rely on these satellites," explains Breuer.
While Viasat in his statement stated that the disturbances that occurred to consumers in Ukraine and in several other countries occurred because of deliberate, isolated, and external actions. But they did not explain in more detail about the incident.
"The network is now stable and we were able to restore service and activate the terminal as quickly as possible," said Chris Phillips, a spokesman for Viasat, who also said they prioritized aid in critical infrastructure and humanitarianism.