The Russian-state-owned VTB Bank is facing the largest DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack in its history. The pro-Ukraine collective, which goes by the name “IT Army of Ukraine”, has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has created many cyberattack instances and destroyed millions of dollars’ worth of resources for both nations. With Russia’s aggressive outlook on the war, Ukraine has also started its defensive strategies and infiltrated Russia’s online resources, with Russia’s second-largest bank being the latest victim.
Russia-Ukraine conflict evolves into cyberwarfare
The hacktivist group announced the cyberattack on its Telegram channel last month. Via the attack, the hackers were able to infiltrate the bank’s website and flood it with malicious traffic. The attack has affected banking customers and clients who could not access the website and the mobile application.
However, the bank has claimed that the attack did not compromise any of the customers’ data and assured that the data was still protected while the website was down.
VTB Bank Attack
According to the post shared by RedPacket Security, Russia’s VTB Bank is currently facing a DDoS attack, and its “technological infrastructure” is under fire. The largest not only this year, but in the whole time the bank has operated,” said the bank statement in a post today.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, the Ukrainian economy and infrastructure were severely destroyed, forcing the latter to retaliate. In those efforts, hacking and cyber-attacks become a USP for Ukraine.
The sheer number of Ukrainian hackers and the total shift in mythology increased the intensity of these attacks on the Russian government and private institutions in Russia.
According to sources, most of these attacks are carried out by pro-Ukrainian hacktivist groups, and several security specialists and hackers pledged to support Kyiv.
However, the Russian state bank also shared some facts about the attack, stating that the traffic injected via the DDoS attack had instances of IP addresses inside and outside of Russia and submitted the same to Russian police and law enforcement for further action and mitigation.
