Cyber attacks against financial institutions become more sophisticated
In 2024, the Bank of Russia received more than 750 reports on cyber attacks against financial institutions. Most of the attacks were aimed at disabling companies’ information infrastructure or making their services unavailable (DDoS attacks). Furthermore, fraudsters are trying to gain access to the systems of financial institutions by attacking their suppliers more often.
Hacking methods are becoming increasingly sophisticated, multi-stage, and multi-layered, which sometimes enables them to bypass traditional information security safeguards, while making it more difficult for financial institutions to detect such attacks. In addition, when analysing these incidents, Bank of Russia experts detected repeated attacks on previously compromised systems. In some cases, hackers could sell access to them to other fraudsters.
For financial institutions to retain their ability to counter cyber attacks and enhance their infrastructure security, the Bank of Russia organises regular cyber drills. In 2024, more than 290 companies participated in them.
Analytical data on the main types of cyber attacks in the financial sector in 2024 are available in the Bank of Russia’s review.