Kyiv, 23 June 2026 — The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, together with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine and with the support of Sweden, has launched a free educational series called “Digital Skills and Online Security” on the Diia.Education online learning platform.

The 2025 Digital and AI Literacy Study shows that 67% of adults and 78% of teenagers have encountered security problems on the Internet in the past year. At the same time, one in every four adults in Ukraine say they do nothing to protect their data. The series is designed to help Ukrainians adapt to new challenges and learn how to combat fraud.

After watching all the episodes in the series, users can take a final test and receive a certificate of completion.

Vitalii Balashov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine for Cybersecurity and Cloud Technologies, noted: “Security technologies are improving, but fraudsters are adapting even faster. Statistics confirm that the use of complex passwords among adults has fallen by 15% in recent years. People trust the built-in protection of applications or banks and their vigilance drops. This is exactly what attackers use, striking through social engineering. In conditions of war, cyber and online security is part of national resilience, as the enemy is systematically attacking the consciousness of society. This educational series is a tool that returns control to the hands of users.”

Social media fraud is now more dangerous than regular computer viruses. For example, almost 44% of adults have received messages from “friends” or acquaintances whose accounts have been hacked asking to borrow money. In addition, misinformation on the most painful social topics is widespread. To protect yourself from information operations and phishing, basic digital hygiene is needed.

Ruslana Korenchuk, the CEO of Diia.Osvita, CDTO Campus, noted that 58% of Ukrainians already have basic and higher digital skills. “Technologies are flying forward, and digitalisation, together with AI transformation, is progressing rapidly. Despite the fact that the majority has basic skills, a category of ‘digitally alienated’ people has appeared – almost 18% of the population is aware of the importance of technology, but does not understand how and why to study. The Diia.Education platform was created from the very beginning to close such gaps: we explain complex things in simple language through the format of educational series, simulators, and tests. That is why we created this new educational series of seven short episodes. For our audience, we’ve collected exceptionally practical algorithms of actions: what specifically to do in the first minutes if your funds are debited, or how to configure your browser so that data brokers do not track you.”

The authors of the series analysed situations that few people think of during training. For example:

• Deepfakes give themselves away via poor Ukrainian accents. If you are suspicious of a video where someone asks for money, listen to the pronunciation: artificial intelligence often makes mistakes in accents, and also does not know how to generate correct writing in the background.
• Publishing a screenshot of correspondence can be a crime. Even if the message was sent to you personally, the secrecy of correspondence is protected by law and legal liability may arise for disclosing another person’s personal information without their consent.
• The algorithm can be “broken” unexpectedly. To get out of the information bubble, it is not enough to press “not interested”. Like something that you would never ordinarily like – this will confuse the social network algorithm and change your feed.
• Separate contacts and mail. This is the gold standard of cyber hygiene: it is advisable to have a separate email for registrations in stores or services, and a separate phone number that you do not publish on social networks or marketplaces for online banking.

Olena Ursu, UNDP in Ukraine Democratic Governance Portfolio Team Leader, emphasised that digital inequality today is not only about access to the Internet, but also about the ability to obtain the necessary online services or information and the ability to protect oneself.

“As sociological surveys show, older people in Ukraine use the Internet and government electronic services the least often,” Ursu said. “They are the ones who most often cite the lack of digital skills as the reason for not using it. Because of this, they also often become the easiest targets for cybercriminals. UNDP, in partnership with Sweden, is consistently supporting the Ministry of Digital Transformation in its work to increase digital literacy in Ukraine. For five years in a row, we have been helping to develop a network of Digital Education Hubs that teach Ukrainians digital skills free of charge, and to create new products for the Diia.Education platform.

“This project is another component of this work. It is important that the educational series is universal: it provides equal opportunities for all people to protect their rights and finances, regardless of their age or status. It teaches adults how to use virtual cards, tells parents about legal liability for cyberbullying, and also provides algorithms for actions in case of crises – how to prepare backup communication channels during blackouts or Internet outages. Therefore, it is an investment in the security and resilience of the entire Ukrainian society.”

The educational series was created for the Diia.Education platform at the initiative of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, with support from UNDP in Ukraine as part of the DIA Support Project, which is being implemented with funding from Sweden.

During 2025, 18,166 Ukrainians acquired basic digital skills and learned through free training in Digital Education Hubs libraries across the country. The training took place as part of the project implemented by the Ukrainian Library Association with the support of partners. 

Media enquiries:

Yuliia Samus, UNDP Ukraine Head of Communications and Advocacy; email: yuliia.samus@undp.org