Putin convenes online Security Council with Gerasimov and claims cyber war against Russia

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO – Friday, 20 May 2022, 16:44

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that a full-scale war was being waged against Russia in the media and has ordered the development of a state information protection system.

Source: Putin at an online meeting of the Russian Security Council on Friday, as reported by RIA Novosti

Quote: "The number of cyber attacks on Russia's information infrastructure has been growing steadily in recent years. More specifically in recent years, but with the start of the special military operation in the Donbas, Ukraine, the challenges in this area have become even more acute and serious, on a larger scale. In fact, a real aggression, a war in the media, has been unleashed against Russia".

"I think it is reasonable to consider the creation of a state information protection system. I am also waiting for specific proposals from you on what additional steps should be taken to ensure the sustainable operation of the information infrastructure in government and public administration".

Details: Putin added that the number of cyberattacks, including complex ones, has multiplied.

"According to specialists, experts, lone hackers certainly can’t do it. Attacks are initiated from different countries, and they are clearly coordinated. In essence, these are the actions of government agencies", Putin noted.

Putin said that some countries already officially have cyber forces as part of their armies.

"There are targeted attempts to disable the Internet resources of Russia's critical infrastructure. Media, financial institutions and large-scale socially significant portals and networks were first and foremost under attack. Serious attacks were launched against the official websites of the authorities", he said.

According to Putin, the corporate networks of large Russian companies are most often targeted by hackers.

"In most cases, the following attack tactics are used: access to Russian Internet resources is blocked, information becomes inaccessible or is replaced by fake news. At the same time, the most modern algorithms and combined technologies are being used", the Russian president said.

He said that those who are behind these attempts had failed to achieve their goals.

"As for today I can say that the cyber aggression against us, as well as the sanctions attack on Russia in general, have failed. On the whole, we were ready for this attack, and it is the result of the systematic work that has been carried out in recent years", Putin said.

According to him, mechanisms need to be set up to ensure the improvement of the information security of critically important facilities and fine-tuned in real time, with units responsible for information protection being created everywhere.

As can be seen from the broadcast of the Security Council meeting, it was attended by Sergei Shoigu, the Russian Defence Minister, as well as Valery Gerasimov, the Chief of General Staff.

Reminder: Since the start of the full-scale Russian war against Ukraine, the Anonymous group of international hackers has repeatedly hacked various Russian websites. At the same time, Russian hackers are constantly carrying out cyber attacks on Ukraine.