Russian cyber security specialists had to repel billions of cyber attacks this year alone. Today, one of the officials of the center established specifically to repel virtual attacks told how they try to hack our systems from abroad. It's not individuals who act against us, but well-organized squads which have tens of thousands of computers in almost half of the world's countries. There's a political implication in the dates which they choose for their attacks.
Alexander Evstigneev has the details.
In the half hour during which the press conference was held, Russia was attacked about 100,000 times. They checked if the anti-virus software had become outdated. This year, there was a record 4.5 billion cyber attacks. They were launched against facilities of critical importance.
Nikolai Murashov, Deputy Director of Russian National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents: "The highest number of attacks were launched on the presidential election day. They were launched to disrupt the system of video surveillance of voting throughout the country so that they would be able to start a campaign to discredit the election results".
Russian cyber troops are constantly repelling attacks. During the Direct Line with the President and the World Cup, they repelled 25 million attacks on the infrastructure. This is the case for the Olympics in Sochi. It's worth noting that half of the attacks were launched from the USA. Computer hooligans clearly couldn't launch 2 billion attacks.
Andrey Klimov, member of the Federal Council: "There are serious organizations behind those actions. Actually, they don't try to hide it. They are talking about counteraction. So, there is counteraction in cyberspace as well. Other countries are involved, too, especially the NATO countries".
130 countries, including NATO members, practice conducting cyberwarfare during their drills. Every day, they try to destroy their enemy by economic means. This year, for example, hackers and their employers have stolen $2 trillion from the world economy.
Anton Ivanov, anti-virus analyst: "There are disruptive attacks when criminals aim at corrupting an entity's data and stopping its business processes".
Sberbank, which repelled 22 cyber attacks last month, knows how it works. Hackers tried not only to steal money but to paralyze one of the country's largest financial institutions.
Stanislav Kuznetsov, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank: "The attacks were very strong. Of course, we repelled all of the attacks. They were repelled on "distant approaches" as we call it".
Herman Gref, CEO of Sberbank: "Our permanent KPI in recent years is 0 rubles lost to cyber fraud".
Hackers don't hide. There is the Zerodium firm, which legally operates out of the US. They buy data about security holes. They offer $1.5 million for hacking an iPhone, and $500,000 for WhatsApp, Viber, and Telegram. They can't prohibit it because there is no such provision in their laws. But there is such a provision in Russia. In the UN, Moscow suggests that countries adopt a code of conduct in cyberspace for governments.
Andrey Krutskikh, Special Representative of the Russian President: "Look at those voting against us. They are Anglo-Saxons headed by the US and all of the NATO and EU countries".
But 120 countries supported Russia. The world wants to feel protected. A lack of rules could lead to a third world war in cyberspace.
Alexander Evstigneev, Alexander Balitsky, Maksim Shchepilov, Elena Finoshina for Vesti.
