Cybersecurity

Hackers and Sith Lords Roam Ukraine's Cyber Badlands

Ukrainian hackers are out of control, and the government-run cybercrime unit is struggling to keep up.
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The taxi driver peers into the rain and shrugs. There’s nothing resembling a government building in this bleak industrial district on the edge of Kiev, just overgrown tram tracks and scrapyards patrolled by dogs.

We’re here to meet Colonel Sergiy Demediuk, Ukraine’s top cybercop, to find out why this former Soviet state, known more for mining coal than data, spawns so many of the most-wanted digital crooks. If anyone can catch them, the colonel can, but he too is proving difficult to find. Finally, a guard emerges from a dingy cluster of peach-colored structures to wave us in.