Authority warns Ukrainians about phone hacking indicators and social media risks

Ivan Pavlenko, Head of the Main Directorate of Electronic Security and Cybersecurity, has advised Ukrainians not to use Telegram on their smartphones and emphasised the importance of turning off their phones while in a combat zone.

Source: Ivan Pavlenko in an interview with Ukrainian Pravda.

Details: Pavlenko said the Russians have tried to gain remote access to his smartphone at least twice since 2014.

Once, it happened near Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast, and one more in Krasnohorivka, Donetsk Oblast, too.

Quote: "It looked like this. My phone was working, then the battery suddenly dropped to zero. I recharged it, but it showed 0% battery again. I turned it off entirely for some time, and then turned it on and it tells me it's fully charged.

I will not go into details, but a sharp drop in charge indicates something is wrong with the phone. This forces the phone to restart. When you restart it, a bookmark appears in the phone, allowing access to all files.

I had to change my phone twice because no specialist can give you 100% guarantees that the phone is clean. The most reliable way is to simply separate yourself from this IMEI [International Mobile Equipment Identifier - ed.] and number."

Details: Pavlenko advised people to buy smartphones independently or with the help of authorised persons in stores.

Pavlenko also believes you should not use social media on a smartphone and transmit important information to them, as well as discussing this information using your phone.

Quote: "If you want to be sure that your phone is only yours, first of all, never accept a phone as a gift. Go to a shop, or rather send someone from your close circle to buy a phone that was not intended for you. The same is true for spies in movies who don't get into the first taxi.

Secondly, frankly, there should be nothing on your phone except the phone book. There is no Telegram application on my phone. If we communicate, we use Signal and sometimes WhatsApp. Well, in any case, the information transmitted on social media should not be complete but in fragments. If you do not know the essence of it, then you will not be able to put it together. 

Well, in general, conversations concerning serious official issues are not conducted using the phone. So, that’s what it looks like."

Read more: Colonel Ivan Pavlenko: The war will end, we will win. But the war in cyberspace will never end

Details: Pavlenko also said it is crucial for military personnel and journalists in the combat zone close to the places of hostilities to turn on flight mode on their phones.

Quote: "The Russians, for example, have a Layer 3 system that creates a deceptive base station, and can detect phones in some areas and send messages.

It can't spy on your conversation, but it can find out the location of the phone. A significant threat is when many phones are together in one place. We understand that there are no gatherings of people other than military personnel in the war zone. So here we are talking about the military. Therefore, of course they need to turn off their phones so they cannot be tracked.

We had many losses in 2014 precisely because of mobile phones being used in the war zone. This is a serious threat."

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