Ukraine’s defense intelligence reports on ongoing cyberattack on Russian networks

That’s according to Ukrinform’s source in the defense intelligence agency.

The source says Russia’s largest banking institutions are currently under attack, including Alfa Bank, SberBank, Raiffeisen Bank, VTB Bank, RSHB Bank, Rosbank, Gazprombank, T-Bank, and iBank. On the second day of the attack, Promsvyazbank and Pochta Bank, as well as Avito, a Russian Internet service for posting ads for goods, real estate, CVs, and job vacancies, were added to the target list.

Today, the Russian social media platform VK, the Discord messenger, the Rapid Payment System SBP, the National Payment Card System NSPK, and the Lampa movie viewing platform were also affected.

Some financial institutions, including Alfa Bank, initially denied that the failure was due to external interference. However, the rest of the banks, including VTB, admitted that they were trying to cope with a "large-scale DDOS attack plotted from abroad" and overcome its consequences. However, the online services of financial institutions across the country are either down or operating with disruptions for the third day in a row. Because of this, clients throughout Russia are unable to check into their personal accounts, pay for services or commute and proceed with any other financial transactions. The situation is complicated by the unstable operation of Internet providers, including Beeline, Megafon, MTS, Tele2, and Rostelecom, which have also been attacked by Ukrainian cyber operatives.

As noted by the Russian media, before attacking, “hackers” scan the target’s infrastructure and find vulnerabilities. It is reported that users across Russia are unable to fully utilize banking services. Some Russian media refer to the current incident as the "Internet apocalypse", admitting that this might be the most powerful cyberattack ever recorded.

As reported earlier, a large-scale cyberattack was launched on July 23.