Unknown individuals tried to access the corporate accounts of journalists with Poltavska Khvylia and Sil Media late on 24 November, reports Vitaliy Ulybin, founder and CEO of the two news outlets, in a comment to Nadia Kucher, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Poltava oblast.
“All night long, someone was trying to access all our corporate accounts, break into the Instagram and Facebook profiles of all our journalists. We were lucky: we did retain something from our digital security training, so everyone has two-factor authentication installed with vairous levels of protection,” said Vitaliy Ulybin.
He added that no one on their team had their accounts hacked.
“But the attempts to hack my Facebook and Instagram pages were so intense that Meta decided that there was some kind of fraud going on and suspended my profile for 180 days, giving me an opportunity to appeal and prove that I am the true owner of the account and not some impersonator,” the journalist said.
According to Vitaliy Ulybin, the problem is that the Instagram pages of the websites Sil Media and Poltavska Khvylia were linked to his main page in these social media.
“As of now, my Facebook, Instagram, and the pages of the news outlets are suspended. We are now trying to figure out the details and resolve the situation. But the situation is very interesting, because the hack attempts were coming Zakarpattia and Kyiv at the same time. It is also noteworthy that the attack targeted all journalists at once,” he said.
He suggests that the attempts could have been made either by Russian forces or simply those looking to interfere with Poltavska Khvylia’s investigations.
In 2023, Facebook suspended the Poltavska Khvylia advertising account due to mass flagging by bots. In 2022, the media outlet received a letter from Roskomnadzor notifying them that access to their website in Russia had been restricted.