Government prepares distributed data center protection after series of Russian strikes
Ukraine is preparing a multi-layered protection model for data centers and other critical communications infrastructure after a series of Russian strikes on telecommunications facilities. Some systems may be placed underground, some moved to cloud environments or backed up abroad.
Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi said this in an interview with "TSN.Tyzhden". According to him, the issue of protecting data centers and mobile communications was already considered at a meeting of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff.
"Something should be underground, something should be in the cloud, something should be abroad, something should be a mix, and something should be all three simultaneously", - stated Koretskyi.
The Prime Minister noted that there is no single universal solution for all digital infrastructure. For different systems, the government plans to combine physical protection, geographic redundancy, and relocation of critical services to alternative sites. The threat to such infrastructure, according to him, will persist until the end of the war.
The new protection model is being developed against the backdrop of a sharp change in the situation in the telecommunications sector. During September 23-26, Russian strikes damaged a number of data centers, network nodes, and equipment of internet providers in Kyiv. Problems were reported by UTELS, "Pavutina", "Domonet", Kievnet, Faust, and other operators. Separately, the sites of MiroHost, Datagroup, and Cosmonova were damaged.
Users also felt the consequences. After the attack on September 23, internet access problems arose for approximately 100,000 households in Kyiv and the region.
In the following days, attacks continued. On September 25, the Datagroup data center, which is part of the DVL group together with Volia and the mobile operator lifecell, was damaged. The company stated that customer data was preserved, and services were transferred to backup sites.
On September 26, the consequences went beyond internet providers. Due to damage to the Cosmonova data center, interruptions in signal transmission occurred for a number of Ukrainian TV channels. Problems were also registered by users of MEGOGO and SWEET.TV, and some cable operators and online services temporarily worked unstable.
Interruptions or temporary loss of signal were encountered, in particular, by "Suspilne", "Kyiv24", "Novyny.LIVE", "Armia TV", and other broadcasters. Some of them continued to work through websites, YouTube, and social networks.
On September 27, the main office of Ukraine's largest mobile operator "Kyivstar" also came under attack. The company reported that no employees were injured. This was a continuation of a series of attacks on facilities related to Ukrainian communications and data transmission infrastructure.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier stated that Russia is carrying out a separate series of strikes on Ukrainian data centers and communications infrastructure. According to him, decisions on additional protection of facilities on which the operation of the internet, communications, and digital services depend were already made at the Staff meeting.
After the first strikes, Zelenskyy instructed to strengthen the protection of data centers and other critical communication facilities. Koretskyi's statement clarifies what the practical model of such protection could be - with the distribution of infrastructure among physically protected, cloud, and foreign backup sites.
Based on materials: "TSN.Tyzhden", TSN, Ukrainska Pravda
