Nikcenter reports attempts to hack Telegram profiles of their journalists
The Mykolaiv Center for Journalistic Investigations "Nikcenter" says there was an attempt to hack the personal Telegram profiles of their journalists. The outlet's editor-in-chief, Oleh Ohanov, reported this on Facebook.
"This week, someone has been trying to access the Telegram accounts of Nikcenter journalists. Today, our colleagues received SMS texts from CloudОTP with Telegram access codes, which means that someone was trying to use our phone numbers to go online. All their attempts failed, and were coming from the same IP address registered in Mykolaiv oblast," Oleh Ohanov said.
Iryna Chulivska of the Digital Journalism Laboratory commented on Oleh Ohanov's post, noting that if the media outlet files a complaint with the cyber police, the law enforcers will have the opportunity to take the journalists' phones away for investigation.
"In such a case, the police will want to take away your phones with Telegram opened 'for investigation', and, of course, none of the journalists will agree to that (and they will be right)," Iryna Chulivska wrote.
In his comment to the IMI representative in Mykolaiv oblast, Oleh Ohanov said that the outlet does not yet plan to contact the police, as it is risky.
However, the journalists are currently checking whether there has been any suspicious activity on the website recently.
"I cannot say whether it has something to do with our latest investigations. Although they did gain traction and affected the interests of many influential people," Oleh Ohanov said when asked if he thought the attack was connected with the center's latest investigations.
Note that the day before, the media outlet released an investigation about the "Mykolaivvodokanal" CEO Borys Dudenko, as well as materials about how Mykolaiv businessmen are learning to capitalize on food purchases for the army and an investigation about army fuel "disappearing" from a Mykolaiv gas station.
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