The Kaspersky Lab cybersecurity software firm reported a wave of DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks against major Russian banks on Thursday. According to the company's press service, the attacks might be a distraction for a much larger cyber-attack.
"Hackers attacked the websites of at least five of the top 10 prominent financial institutions," a company representative said. "This series of attacks was the first large-scale wave of DDoS attacks aimed at Russian banks this year."
The representative also explained that the wave of attacks originally began at 4 p.m. on Tuesday and has continued since then. According to him, the average attack lasted one hour, with the longest lasting for 12 hours.
The attackers used a botnet, a network of virus-infected computers, consisting of 24,000 different machines. More than 50 percent of the computers were located in the United States, Taiwan, India, and Israel.
Kaspersky's press officer also said that most of the targeted banks were able to avoid serious damage.
The last time such an attack on Russian banks was recorded was in October 2015, when eight well-known Russian banks came under DDOS attack.
