Hi and welcome to Cyber Reasons Malicious Life, I'm Gran Levy.

Every year on June 28th, Ukrainians celebrate their Constitution Day,

the anniversary of the nation's adoption of

a constitution, of course, citizens celebrate national holidays by immersing themselves in history.

On July 4th, every year, immersing themselves in history.

On July 4th, every year, you are reread the Declaration of Independence, and on Martin Luther

King's day, each of you spends the whole day reflecting on Dr King and the injustices

against African Americans in this country, both past and present.

You all do that, right?

Right?

Unlike in America, Ukrainians used their national holiday as a mere excuse to take a relaxing vacation.

The day before Constitution Day in 2017, Ole D'Revenko was heading to a country house where he'd spend the long weekend with his family.

Derveenko is the founder of Information Systems Security Partners, a cyber security lab which in some ways has become the go-to for Ukrainian targets of Russian APTs.

Ukraine is targeted a lot by Russia, so the folks at ISSP are probably more deserving of vacations than most of the rest of us.

But Ole was mistaken in thinking he would be able to enjoy a relaxing holiday weekend.

During his drive north to the countryside that morning of the 27th,

his phone began to light up. He had to pull off the highway.

Then, as the gravity of the situation became clearer, he ducked into a roadside restaurant to get on his computer.

By the afternoon Ole was calling every executive at every company he knew, telling them to unplug all their computer systems immediately.

Shut everything down, whatever the cost.

Usually, this isn't an easy pitch to make.

Most executives shudder at the idea of shutting down their whole business for any amount of time.

...