Russia’s central bank said Saturday the country’s banking system was hit by a mass cyberattack, as several ministries and the railway system also reported attempted breaches.
The central bank’s IT attack monitoring centre “detected mass distribution of harmful software of the first and second type,” according to a central bank statement quoted by Russian news agencies.
“It did not detect instances of compromise”, of the systems of the country’s banks, the central bank added.
Late Friday, attacks were reported
by various Russian government agencies, including the interior ministry, which
said 1,000 of its computers were hit by a virus, which was then localised.
Around the world, computers were
affected in dozens of countries by the spreading WannaCry ransomware which
locks users’ files and demands money to restore them.
Russian health ministry aide Nikita
Odintsov said on Twitter that the ministry had “quickly thwarted” the attempted
attacks.
Russia’s largest bank Sberbank said
in a statement carried by news agencies that its systems “detected in time
attempts to penetrate bank infrastructure”.
“The bank’s network has provisions
for defending from such attacks. There was no penetration of the system by
viruses,” the statement said.
The Russian emergency ministry said
it had “blocked all attempts of viral attacks on its computers,” news agencies
reported.
Russia’s state railway monopoly
Russian Railways said it had also “localised” an attack, without elaborating on
the extent of damage.
“Passenger and cargo transportation
is carried on as usual,” it said.
Source: Guardian
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