Due to the Russian cyberattack, all registration activities in Ukraine are unavailable, about 25 state registries have been suspended, and the consequences of the attack on the registries will become fully clear after the registry resumes its work, said Alexander Keyer, managing partner of RI Group law firm.
“As a result of the massive cyberattack, about 25 state registries have been suspended to some extent, which has practically paralyzed a significant part of the processes in various areas of business and citizens’ lives. Almost all activities requiring data from state registries have been put on hold, in particular, all registration activities are unavailable,” he explained to Interfax-Ukraine.
Mr. Keyer noted that the situation is primarily a problem “for real estate-related activities, as it is impossible to conduct transactions with real estate – no sale and purchase agreements, lease, gift, mortgage agreements, no pledges, seizure of property, prohibition on alienation of property, etc.”
“Businesses and citizens are forced to simply postpone these actions until the state registries are restored to proper operation,” he said.
Mr. Keyer clarified that all legal and notarial actions requiring access to state registries are not carried out until the registries are restored.
“Notaries have stopped performing most notarial acts related to the need to use the real estate/movable property registers, but continue to provide services that do not require verification of data from the registers, such as registration of wills and amendments thereto, certification of signatures, certification of copies of documents, etc.” he said.
At the same time, Keyer noted that businesses are currently unable to carry out registration activities in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, in particular, it is impossible to register a change of manager, members of legal entities, or change of authorized capital.
In addition, due to the cyberattack, the provision of registration services related to the change of ownership of vehicles, except for the initial registration of vehicles (new and imported from abroad), was suspended by the service centers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
“Both businesses and citizens have no choice but to postpone actions that are now impossible until the registries are up and running. There is currently no clear and verified information on the leakage and destruction of critical data from the registers. Therefore, the consequences of the attack on the registries will become fully clear after the registry is restored and will largely depend on how critical the damage to the registries is,” he said.
Keyer believes that, for example, after access to the State Register of Real Property Rights is restored, “it is quite likely that data will disappear from the register or that information on the owners of real estate, the seizure or pledge of these objects, etc. will change.”
“This situation creates certain opportunities for various types of fraudulent activities with real estate. In this regard, after restoring access to the registers, we strongly recommend that you thoroughly check the information in the registers and, in case of detection of disappearance, change or other actions with the information, immediately take appropriate measures to protect your violated rights and interests,” the lawyer emphasized.
As reported, on December 19, the Ministry of Justice announced a large-scale failure at the level of the network infrastructure serving state registries due to a cyberattack by the Russian Federation on state registries under the competence of the Ministry of Justice. According to Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna, the time for priority restoration will be approximately two weeks. First of all, the State Register of Civil Status Acts, the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, and the State Register of Real Property Rights and Encumbrances will be restored.
On December 20, Stefanyshyna said that all data in the registers would be restored, but it would take some time, and that no personal data leakage had been confirmed.
