Massive cyber attack on Russian banking sector; Five banks targeted using CCTV cameras in 30 countries

Moscow : Last month, the cyber attacks on the US and Europe, done with the help of ‘smart’ gadgets using ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT), had created quite a stir. Within three weeks after that, it has come to the fore that similar cyber attacks have been done in Russia also. These cyber attacks in Russia, have targeted the banking industry. As per the information given by the Russian sources, five leading banks in Russia were being targeted for three consecutive days.

During these DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) type of cyber attacks, the computer networks of these Russian banks were bombarded simultaneously with a speed of more than 6.5 lakh ‘requests’ per second. It has become clear that a malware called ‘Mirai’ was used in these cyber attacks that commenced on Tuesday. It is said that the leading international ‘cyber security’ firm ‘Kaspersky’ has unearthed this attack.

To conduct this cyber attack, a network of around 24 thousand ‘CCTV’ as well as ‘Home Video’ cameras from 30 countries including the US, Israel and India, was used. According to ‘Kaspersky’, five leading Russian banks, including ‘Sberbank’ and ‘Alfabank’ were the main targets of these cyber attacks. It was also mentioned in the statement given by the Russian Central Bank that ‘Botnets’ were also used in the cyber attacks. This was the first massive cyber attack of this year, inflicted on the Russian banking sector.

For the past few months, the US has witnessed massive cyber attacks, for which Russia had been held responsible. It had also come to the fore that the US agencies were ready to teach Russia a lesson over these cyber attacks. It was also claimed that the US had developed ‘cyber weapons’ for the purpose. Against this background, the cyber attack on the Russian banking sector on such a massive scale, has caught widespread attention.

Although Russia had not targeted anyone over the issue, it had taken an aggressive stand after receiving a warning from the US.

The cyber attacks carried out last month had severely affected nearly 50 websites, including ‘Twitter‘, ‘HBO’, ‘The New York Times’ and ‘PayPal’ among others. The ‘Department of Homeland Security’ and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the US had undertaken the investigations in the matter. Within days of the attacks, the Chinese firm ‘ Hangzhou Xiongmai’, which sells ‘webcams’ in the US, had taken decision to recall its products.