Hackers take aim at Ukrainian officials’ phones

As Russia continues to pursue its invasion of Ukraine, a senior cyber security official revealed that the phones of Ukrainian officials have been targeted by hackers.

According to the deputy head of Ukraine's State Special Communications Service, Victor Zhora, the phones being used by Ukrainian public servants have been under constant attack.

Zhora told journalists at an online news conference that there has been "a lot of attempts to hack Ukrainian officials' phones", focused on the spreading of malware.

"So far, [Ukraine's State Special Communications Service] have not seen any evidence that Ukrainian devices had been compromised," Zhora said.

Zhora spoke to journalists 100 days since Russian forces crossed the border.

According to a Reuters report, sophisticated spy software – sometimes called a "zero click" hack – is particularly feared due to its capability to remotely and invisibly hack into such devices without interaction from the victim. In April, Reuters also covered the phone hacking of European Commission officials, targeted through the use of zero click spyware.

Zhora added that he and his colleagues were aware of the threat of zero click intrusions but did not comment on whether any attempts to break into their own devices using that method had been made.

"We continue monitoring this," Zhora said.