The Diya Public Services Platform Faces a Second Glitch in One Day
An issue impacted Ukraine’s public services portal Diya, interrupting access for some users for the second time within a single day. Local outlet Strana.ua reported that the resource became temporarily unavailable as technicians worked to restore service. While many users experienced disruptions, others reported that the platform continued to operate normally, highlighting a mixed experience across the user base.
Late on the night of February 4, Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation, Mikhail Fedorov, addressed the situation with experts and noted a failure in the state services application. The minister suggested that the timing coincided with a period when the nation began accepting votes for Ukraine’s representative in the Eurovision Song Contest. This event appears to have driven a surge in demand on the platform, contributing to performance stress as the system handled a higher number of requests than usual.
Officials indicated that the volume of requests had surged significantly, with the count increasing to around 15,000 compared with the previous year. Fedorov emphasized that the platform had shown substantial improvements over the past year, reporting a fivefold increase in operational efficiency. This assessment points to ongoing progress in scaling the system to accommodate peak activity during major national events.
By the morning of the same day, Strana.ua reported that access to Diya had been restored after technical work. Reporters noted that the teams responsible for the service carefully identified the problem and implemented fixes to address a display error related to user documents, ensuring that official records appeared correctly for users navigating the portal. The incident underscored the importance of robust monitoring and rapid remediation in a platform that handles vital citizen services and sensitive personal information.
There were additional mentions of cyber threats targeting critical Ukrainian infrastructure. Reports indicated that attackers had previously targeted the Ukrainian headquarters handling issues related to POW matters, signaling broader concerns about cybersecurity and resilience in the face of ongoing challenges. These developments reinforce the need for continuous hardening of public sector digital services and clear communication with users during outages to maintain trust and usability.