Foreign Intel Services Prepared Major Cyberattacks on Russia's Financial System

Foreign intelligence services presumably of Ukrainian origin are planning cyberattacks to destabilize Russia's financial system starting next Monday, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said.

"The FSB received information about preparations by foreign intelligence services for large-scale cyberattacks starting December 5, 2016, in order to destabilize Russia's financial system, including the activities of a number of major Russian banks," the FSB said in a statement Friday.

It noted that an investigation uncovered servers belonging to Ukraine's BlazingFast hosting company located in the Netherlands. The cyberattack on several Russian cities is said to be accompanied by mass SMS text messages and social network publications of a provocative nature undermining Russia's credit and financial system, it added.

The Russian Federal Security Service further said in the statement that it is taking measures to neutralize any threats to the country's economic and information security in connection with the planned attacks.

The Ukrainian hosting company BlazingFast has confirmed that it has clients in the Netherlands, promising to investigate the issue.

"Yes, we have [clients] in the Netherlands. Since you called and this information has appeared somewhere, we will quickly begin to investigate," the BlazingFast hosting company spokesperson said Friday.

In October, the US Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a statement formally accusing Moscow of attempting to influence the US election by hacking into servers belonging to the DNC. It followed a series of informal accusations against Russia for the hacks, also made without evidence. Russia has denied these claims, with President Vladimir Putin calling the allegations an attempt to distract American voters from domestic issues.

In November, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that hackers from Russia could try to interfere with general elections in Germany next year.