Cyberattacks on Russia Tripled in 2016 With 70Mln Incidents Registered

The figure is nearly three times more than that in 2015. Over 60 percent of the attacks were carried out from abroad.

VIENNA (Sputnik) — Russia experienced over 70 million cyberattacks in 2016, which is almost three times more than a year before, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Oleg Khramov said Wednesday.

"Russia's information resources experienced more than 70 million cyberattacks in 2016. Their number has almost tripled compared to 2015," Khramov said at the Cyber Security for Critical Infrastructure: Strengthening Confidence Building in the OSCE conference.

According to Khramov, over 60 percent of the attacks were carried out from abroad.

The deputy secretary said that Russia put a stop to the activities of 1,130 sources of such attacks at home and 500 abroad.

In December 2016, Russia's Federal Security Service said that foreign special services were preparing mass cyberattacks aiming to destabilize Russia's financial system. Russia's largest retail bank Sberbank said it registered and countered several attacks. Data provider Rostelekom said it also countered a number of attacks on banks and financial organizations.

In January, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that foreign intelligence could be behind the cyberattacks on Russian banks and government websites.