Tension between Russia and Ukraine puts banks on alert for hacker attack

The European Central Bank is preparing mainland banks for a possible Russian-sponsored cyberattack as tensions with Ukraine mount, two people briefed on the matter told Reuters, as the region braces for the financial fallout. there is a conflict.

The standoff between Russia and Ukraine has shaken Europe’s political and business leaders, who fear an invasion that could damage the entire region.

Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron traveled from Moscow to Kiev in a bid to act as a mediator after Russia concentrated troops near Ukraine.

Now the European Central Bank, led by former French minister Christine Lagarde and which oversees Europe’s biggest creditors, is on alert for cyberattacks launched from Russia against banks, one such person said.

While the regulator was focused on common scams that have escalated a lot during the pandemic, the Ukraine crisis has diverted its attention to cyberattacks launched from Russia, according to one of the sources. She added that the ECB had questioned banks about their defenses.

Banks were carrying out cyber warfare games to test their ability to fend off attacks, the person said. The ECB, which highlighted cybersecurity vulnerability as one of its priority actions, declined to comment.

Their concerns are repeated around the world.

The New York Department of Financial Services issued a warning to financial institutions in late January, warning of retaliatory cyberattacks if Russia invades Ukraine and provokes US sanctions, according to Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence.

MAXIMUM ALERT

The United States, the European Union and Britain have repeatedly warned Putin not to attack Ukraine after Russia sent around 100,000 troops close to the border with its former Soviet Union neighbour.

Earlier this year, several Ukrainian websites were hit by a cyberattack that left a warning to “be afraid and expect the worst” after Russia gathered troops near Ukraine’s borders.
Ukraine’s state security service SBU said it saw signs the attack was linked to hacking groups associated with Russian intelligence services.

Russian officials say the West is gripped by Russophobia and has no right to lecture Moscow on how to act after the western military alliance, NATO, has expanded eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The Kremlin has also repeatedly denied that the Russian state has anything to do with hacking around the world and said it stands ready to cooperate with the United States and other countries in cracking down on cybercrime.

In any case, regulators in Europe are on high alert. Britain’s National Cyber ​​Security Center has warned major organizations to beef up their cybersecurity amid rising tensions over Ukraine.

On Tuesday (8), Mark Branson, head of the German supervisory body BaFin, told an online conference that cyber warfare is interconnected with geopolitics and security.

The White House also blamed Russia for the devastating “NotPetya” cyberattack in 2017, when a virus crippled parts of Ukraine’s infrastructure, bringing down thousands of computers in dozens of countries.

The vulnerability was highlighted again last year when one of the biggest hacking campaigns ever launched used an American technology company as a springboard to compromise a number of government agencies, an attack the White House blamed on Russian spy services.

The attack breached software made by SolarWinds Corp, giving hackers access to thousands of companies using its products, with repercussions across Europe. Denmark’s central bank said the country’s “financial infrastructure” had been hit.

Some, however, believe that the crisis in Ukraine was disproportionate. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Washington and the media of fueling the panic.

(Collaborated with Pete Schroedes in Washington, Tom Sims in Frankfurt and Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen)

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves