Cyberattacks have affected the booking process: businesses demand an extension

29 January 23:48

The European Business Association has asked the Ukrainian government to extend the existing reservations for two months and to postpone the deadline for updating the criticality rating to April 30. This is reported by Komersant ukrainskyi with reference to the EBA press service.

Due to a cyberattack that affected state registries and the reservation system, companies could not receive the status of critical enterprises in a timely manner.

“After the cyberattacks at the end of 2024 and the rather lengthy restoration of state registers, the reservation system and, most importantly, the granting of criticality status to companies did not work all this time. Also, the suspension of the registers led to the fact that most authorities approved their sectoral and regional criteria with a significant delay,” the European Business Association explains.

According to business representatives, this has led to a long queue of applications for critical enterprise status.

“It is obvious that the state apparatus will not be able to process all applications and grant the appropriate status to all truly critical enterprises by February 28,” the association said.

In order to reduce the burden on the system and ensure the stable operation of Ukraine’s economy, the business community is asking to extend the validity of existing reservations for another two months and postpone the deadline for updating the criticality status until the end of April.

“This will help avoid overloading the limited resources of the system, which in turn will contribute to the stable operation of enterprises and support the country’s economy,” the statement emphasizes.

In addition, the statement notes that there is a legal gap in the criteria for granting criticality status. Companies apply for criticality status in January, but tax reports for the 4th quarter of 2024 will be submitted only in February. This may be the basis for refusal to grant the status.

“Accordingly, it is necessary to make urgent changes to the criteria and procedure for granting criticality, namely, to allow submission of reports for the last reporting period for which the reporting deadlines established by the Tax Code have expired, in particular, in January and February 2025, to submit a report for the 3rd quarter of 2024,” the businessmen suggest.

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As a reminder, the Government has extended the validity of reservations for mobilization for one month due to a cyberattack on state registers.

The decision applies to those reservations that were valid as of December 19 and were issued in accordance with Resolution No. 76 of January 27, 2023.

For example, if an employee’s reservation expired on December 20, 2024, it will be automatically extended until January 20, 2025. If the reservation was completed before December 19, i.e. before the cyberattack, employers will be able to renew it after the registers resume their work.

Booking procedure

From now on, reservations for persons liable for military service will be made only through the Diia portal. The only exception is non-resident companies, which have a separate mechanism for submitting documents. Such companies will submit lists of employees liable for military service directly to the Ministry of Economy, which will carry out the booking procedure.

The new procedure provides for regular automatic checks of the criticality status of enterprises. By integrating with the Pension Fund and State Tax Service databases, the system will check the companies’ compliance with the established criteria on a monthly basis, ensuring that reservations are up-to-date and legitimate.

An important aspect of the new procedure is the possibility of withdrawing the reservation from employees at the request of the company. However, unless there are special reasons, such as the employee’s dismissal, the company may initiate such a withdrawal no more than once a month.

Restrictions on booking

Employees who have been working at the company for less than three months are not allowed to make a reservation. This temporary restriction is planned to be revised after the tax legislation is amended to reduce the required length of service to one month.

Special conditions are set for part-time employees. If an employee already has a reservation at his or her main place of work, he or she cannot be included in the general database of persons liable for military service at another company to receive an additional reservation.

The system provides for a transition period for reservations already issued. All existing reservations will remain in force until the company reconfirms its criticality status in accordance with the new rules.

New bookings for employees will be possible only after the company receives an updated criticality status in accordance with the new requirements.

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How does booking through Diia work?

First, the ministries and the EMB form a list of institutions that can book employees.

The head of the company submits the lists of employees he wants to book through the Diia portal. He or she signs the application with his or her electronic signature.

After that, the online verification of employees’ data begins. One of the conditions is that a person’s military registration data must be in the Oberig register. Also, a person liable for military service must be officially employed.

In case of a positive decision, the head of the company will receive a notification in his or her personal account on the Diia portal. In addition, the reservation data will be updated in the Reserve application.

If the decision is negative, the manager will also receive a notification in his or her personal account on the administrative services web portal.

What is known about the hacker attack

on December 19, Russian hackers announced that they had attacked the digital databases of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and posted screenshots of information from them.

The Ministry of Justice itself reported a large-scale failure in the work of state registries, which will not work at least until the end of the day. According to the ministry, a large-scale failure occurred at the level of the network infrastructure.

The next day, it became known that Russian hackers had carried out the largest attack in the history of independent Ukraine and destroyed a number of data. As a result, employee bookings, LLC registration, online marriage, eVidnuvannya, and other services became temporarily unavailable at Diia. In addition, service centers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have also suspended some services.

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Дзвенислава Карплюк
Editor