Russia has just said that it succeeded to block a major cyber attack targeting the country’s financial system, more precisely the largest Russian banks. The attack most likely has been started by an unnamed foreign intelligence service.
The FSB has apparently received information about the preparation of such attacks, as explained in a statement. The large-scale cyber attacks had to destabilize the financial system of the country, including the activities of several major Russian banks.
Russian authorities somehow established that the attacks were planned from servers that belong to BlazingFast, an Ukranian web hosting company situated in the Netherlands.
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BlazingFast Denies Any Such Attempts against Russia or Russia Banks
The company, however, says that they didn’t discover any evidence pointing to such attacks against Russia. BlazingFast already initiated investigations, and is obviously willing to cooperate with the authorities. More interestingly, the company claims they were never approached by Russia to discuss any possible cyber attacks.
This is what BlazingFast has shared in a post published on Facebook:
We reviewed all our systems and network and we have not found any abnormal pattern changes that could lead to FSB’s allegations. We must assume FSB has been able to handle the situation without the need of BlazingFast’s cooperation. Nevertheless, we hereby publicly demonstrate our willingness to cooperate with any legal entity.
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Furthermore, the report issued by the Russian authorities appears to be quite vague and has failed to provide any specific details on the unnamed foreign intelligence service. And finally, the FSB hasn’t still uncovered the way they stopped the attacks. It’s not even revealed how the alleged hackers planned to compromise the Russian banks.
What this “incident” does is sharpening the relations between Russia and the US. US intelligence agencies have previously accused Russia of conducting cyber attacks.
Nonetheless, hackers managed to breach Russia’s central bank, and stole more than $31 million. It’s not known whether this hack was part of the attack that the FSB claims to have stopped.
Milena Dimitrova
An inspired writer and content manager who has been with SensorsTechForum since the project started. A professional with 10+ years of experience in creating engaging content. Focused on user privacy and malware development, she strongly believes in a world where cybersecurity plays a central role. If common sense makes no sense, she will be there to take notes. Those notes may later turn into articles! Follow Milena @Milenyim
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