Reuters, MOSCOWHackers stole more than 2 billion rubles (US$31.1 million) from correspondent accounts at the Bank of Russia, the central bank said on Friday, the latest example of an escalation of cyberattacks on financial institutions around the globe. Bank of Russia official Artyom Sychyov discussed the losses at a briefing, saying that the hackers had attempted to steal about 5 billion rubles. Sychyov was commenting on a central bank report released earlier in the day, that told about hackers breaking into accounts by faking a client’s credentials. Fears about attacks on banks have mounted since February, when unidentified cybercriminals stole US$81 million in funds that Bangladesh’s central bank had on deposit at the US Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Since then, there have been a number of cyberattacks affecting Russian institutions, although it is unclear if they were linked to the row between Moscow and Washington.

Source: Taipei Times December 03, 2016 16:03 UTC