The number of hacker attacks on Russian banks has doubled since the beginning of the year

According to their assessment, the financial sector is second only to industry in the list of industries facing the highest risk hacking attacks. In October 2024 alone, cybercriminals carried out more than 3,000 cyberattacks on banks, while in the first three quarters of this year the monthly average of attacks was about 1.5 thousand.

The main objectives of attackers in attacks on the banking system are the theft of personal data of clients and bank employees, as well as the disruption of the processing segment of a credit institution, allowing instant withdrawal of funds to accounts controlled by criminals.

Hackers’ primary tools remain DDoS attacks and brute-forcing passwords to steal employee and customer account data, experts said. DDoS attacks have also repeatedly appeared as a tool for hackers in 2022 and 2023. For example, the Central Bank observed that DDoS attacks quadrupled in 2022; In 2023 and 2024, Sberbank reported “powerful” attacks on its infrastructure, one of which lasted 13 hours.

Rosselkhozbank experts at the SOC cybersecurity forum suggested that the increase in hacker activity is associated with better training of criminals and a greater understanding of their banking processes. Increasingly, artificial intelligence is beginning to appear in attacks, which is gradually being integrated into banks’ cyber defense systems, noted Kaspersky Lab expert Sergei Soldatov.