Russia has been subjected to more cyber attacks than any other country over the past two and a half years, Kaspersky Lab’s Managing Director for Russia and the CIS, Anna Kulashova, said on Monday in an interview with RIA Novosti.
More than half of Russians users of Kaspersky Lab products were targeted by hackers during the first eight months of this year, according to the executive. She noted that government and financial institutions, as well as the telecoms, the media and industry are the most common targets for cyber criminals.
“To compromise institutions, hackers could use vulnerabilities in publicly available applications, and steal login credentials, which can be obtained by means of password cracking, including through smaller companies that serve as contractors of larger businesses,” Kulashova said.
She noted that a pressing challenge is posed by hacktivism, in which cyber criminals inflict damage on business operations to draw attention to social or political issues, but that most cyber attacks are conducted for financial gain or espionage.
Kulashova recalled that in July, Kaspersky Lab spotted two waves of targeted mailings to domestic businesses, containing malicious software or links. These files were sent to around a thousand employees in the manufacturing, financial and energy sectors, as well as government agency staff. In the event of a successful attack, cybercriminals could gain remote access to computers and download files and confidential documents, she explained.
Kulashova also said hackers have conducted a series of complex targeted attacks on Russian IT firms and government entities. She noted that the malware campaign, conducted by utilizing public cloud infrastructure, including Yandex Cloud and Dropbox, was aimed at stealing confidential information.