Two Kropyvnytskyi news outlets receive phishing emails from "cyberpolice"

The Kropyvnytskyi regional newspaper Kirovohradska Pravda received a phishing email posing as the Cyberpolice to its corporate email inbox, chief editor Olena Sidorova reports to Pavlo Lisnychenko, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Kirovohradska oblast.

Screenshot from the Kirovohradska Pravda inbox provided by Olena Sidorova

“The letter went to the spam folder right away. Of course, we suspected that something was wrong with it. Since the department chief’s name listed in the letter was incorrect and the sender's address was very strange, we decided not to open it,” the journalist said.

The team’s suspicions were confirmed by the Cyberpolice, which the journalists contacted for advice.

The Kropyvnytskyi broadcasting company TTV also received a similar letter to their editorial mailbox. The team did not open the phishing letter, either, as per their internal protocols for processing correspondence.

Multiple Kropyvnytskyi publications reported similar phishing attacks earlier, in October. First, Hrechka received a phishing email claiming to have been sent by the State Tax Service inspection in the Suvorovskyi district, Odesa. And within a few days, phishing emails posing as the "Central SBU Office" were received by the media outlets Tochka Dostupy, CBN, and Hrechka again.