12,000 foreign malware used for attacks on Russia taken down this year

MOSCOW, December 16. /TASS/: Some 12,000 foreign malicious resources, which were used for cyber attacks against Russia, have been taken down this year, Deputy Director of the National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents Nikolai Murashov said during a press conference on Monday.

"In 2019, a successful effort was carried out to take down more than 12,000 foreign information resources used for inflicting damage to our country. Upon the requests of foreign partners, more than 7,000 such information resources were curbed on Russian soil," Murashov said.

The National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents actively cooperates with foreign centers in order to reduce the level of these threats, he said, noting that this activity has yielded certain results.

According to Murashov, major centers of distributing malware and managing botnets are located outside Russia. This is also confirmed by a study carried out by major foreign cyber security companies.

More than one third of detected computer attacks are aimed at gaining access to financial resources of citizens and commercial enterprises. "Money still runs the world and malefactors seek to earn it at the expense of others," Murashov explained. Hackers are using almost all sorts of malware, the methods of social engineering, phishing and fraud.