Ukrainian Ministry of Justice restores all state registries after Russia’s cyberattack

This was confirmed by Ukraine's Ministry of Justice.

Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and Minister of Justice Olha Stefanishyna stated that "state registries are ready to operate again."

"The Russians failed to achieve their goal. Step by step, we restored key registries for notaries, then the Civil Registry, the Unified State Register, and now the last part of the registries has been restored," she emphasized.

According to her, specialists from the executive service are already updating the data entered during the restoration process.

Stefanishyna stressed that no Ukrainian data was lost during the attack. She also highlighted the importance of lessons learned from this incident and the implementation of systemic changes in cybersecurity.

"The first point is accountability. We terminated cooperation with the head of the National Information Systems State Enterprise. A criminal investigation, opened immediately after the attack, is ongoing. For the first time, an audit of NISE was conducted, which has already been completed. Additionally, an internal investigation is underway," the minister added.

Furthermore, to strengthen security, the Verkhovna Rada has supported Bill No. 11290. This document provides for the creation of a professional network of cybersecurity specialists in all state institutions that process important data about Ukrainians. This will be part of a comprehensive plan to strengthen state registries.

Ukraine is also actively enhancing international cooperation in cybersecurity, leveraging the expertise of partner countries, as cyber threats know no borders.

"I want to thank the specialists from NISE, the SBU, the State Special Communications Service, and the National Police who helped restore the infrastructure and ensure future protection," Stefanishyna concluded.

As of January 20, the following registries are operational:

• The State Register of Property Rights to Real Estate;
• The State Register of Encumbrances of Movable Property;
• The Automated System of Enforcement Proceedings;
• The Electronic Apostille Register;
• The Unified Register of Convicts and Persons in Custody;
• The Automated System for Bankruptcy and Insolvency;
• The Unified State Register of Persons Subject to the Law on Lustration.

Meanwhile, electronic data exchanges with state agencies, such as the State Tax Service, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Migration Service, Pension Fund, Ministry of Digital Transformation, State GeoCadastre, State Border Guard Service, and others, are being restored.

• Following the massive Russian cyberattack on December 19, Ukraine’s Unified and State Registries, as well as the Ministry of Justice website, were temporarily unavailable. The SBU launched a criminal investigation and identified that the attack was carried out by a hacker group linked to Russia’s GRU. 
• The Ministry of Justice restored the core services of the Unified State Register portal on January 10.