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RUSSIA-CRIME-INTERNET-HACKING-SECURITY
World cybercrime shifts to state-backed hackers: Russian group
MOSCOW, Oct 9, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The latest innovations in cybercrime have
shifted from financially motivated actors to state-backed hackers focussed on
sabotage and intelligence gathering, a Russian cybersecurity firm said
Tuesday.
“The focus of innovations and research on the creation of complex malware,
as well as organisation of multi-layered targeted attacks, has now shifted…
to state-sponsored threat actors,” said Group-IB, a firm that works with
Interpol and several other global institutions.
In its 2018 cybercrime trends report, the group said the top three
countries in which state-backed entities operate were China, North Korea and
Iran.
It named Russia, US, Ukraine among other countries involved, and listed 40
active groups.
The groups concentrated o “sabotage and espionage”, particularly in the
sectors of power, nuclear, water, aviation, and commerce, it added.
Most attacks carried out in the second half of 2017 and first half of 2018
targeted the Asia-Pacific region, it said.
“Banks are considered critical infrastructure, they are the targets for
state-sponsored hacker groups,” Group-IB chief Ilia Sachkov said at a
conference in Moscow.
“One successful attack is capable of destroying one financial organisation
and even the collapse of a state financial system,” he said.
The report comes just days after several Western governments accused
Moscow’s military intelligence of a hacking conspiracy that targeted the
world’s chemical weapons watchdog and several other Western institutions.
BSS/AFP/MRI/2327 HRS