Russia Claims Foreign Spies Are Coming After Their Banking System

Russia is claiming that foreign spies are looking to destabilize Russia through an attack on its banking system carried out by a wave of cyber attacks in tandem with a slew of false media reports that its banks are going bust.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), reports that servers found in the Netherlands and registered to a Ukrainian firm were going to be the backbone technology for the attacks. Those attacks were allegedly supposed to target major national and provincial banks in several Russian cities and had been scheduled for December 5th, 2016.

According to the FSB’s released statement on the subject:

“It was planned that the cyber attack would be accompanied by a mass send-out of SMS messages and publications in social media of a provocative nature regarding a crisis in the Russian banking system, bankruptcies and license withdrawals,” it said.

“The FSB is carrying out the necessary measures to neutralize threats to Russia’s economic and information security.”

In the wake of the report, Russia’s central bank said it was aware of the threat and that it is working with authorities to neutralize the threat.  Sources also report that counter-attack plans have been drawn up in the even of an attack.

“The situation is under control. Banks have been given necessary guidance,” the central bank said.

Anton Onoprichuk, director of Kiev-based BlazingFast, said neither the FSB nor any other intelligence agency had been in touch with his company.  He noted that it is possible to use his firm’s servers to carry out an attack.

“Technically it is possible. It is possible with any hosting company, where you rent a server. You can attack whatever (you want) from it and in 99 percent of cases it will become known only after the event.”

Russia, as of yet, has not disclosed which nation is behind the alleged attacks.