Since the beginning of the year, Russian banks have suffered hacker attacks aimed at stealing over RUR 24 bln ($380 mio) – unsuccessful due to the banks’ newly-strengthened anti-fraud protection.
The attackers targeted some of the top ten banks including Sberbank, VTB and Alfa-Bank, according to Izvestia daily. Last year, according to the Central Bank, hackers stole RUR 1.4 bln ($22 mio) from bank cards, 44% more than a year earlier. There are no data for 2019 yet, as banks do not disclose this information, and the Central Bank publishes it only at the end of the year.
Experts say only 3-4% of attacks actually succeed; however, these attacks mainly target large amounts. In the first half of 2019, Sberbank prevented theft of RUR 18 bln ($285 mio), and VTB, RUR 5.4 bln ($85.6 mio).
According to experts, attackers are often helped by the human factor rather than technological vulnerabilities – bank clients’ details are leaked to fraudsters who then use social engineering techniques to influence the clients and trick access details out of them.