Ukraine Border Crisis, European And US Regulators Beware Of Cyber Attacks From Russia

European Central Bank Building. (Wikimedia Commons/Kiefer.)

JAKARTA - The European Central Bank is preparing banks for possible cyberattacks linked to Russia, as tensions with Ukraine escalate, two sources familiar with the matter said, as the region braces for the financial repercussions of any conflict.

The standoff between Russia and Ukraine has rattled European political and business leaders, who fear an invasion that would wreak havoc across the region.

Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron departed from Moscow for Kyiv in a bid to act as a mediator, after Russia amassed troops near Ukraine.

Now the European Central Bank, led by former French minister Christine Lagarde and which oversees Europe's biggest lender, is on guard against the threat of cyber attacks on banks launched from Russia, the two sources quoted Reuters as saying February 9.

While regulators have focused on the usual scams that thrived during the pandemic, the Ukraine crisis has turned its attention to cyberattacks launched from Russia, one of the sources said, adding the ECB had questioned banks about their defenses.

Banks are conducting cyber warfare games to test their ability to fend off attacks, the person said.

The ECB, which has chosen addressing cybersecurity vulnerabilities as one of its priorities, declined to comment.

Illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Chris Roberts)

Meanwhile, the New York Department of Financial Services issued a warning to financial institutions in late January, warning of a retaliatory cyber attack if Russia attacks Ukraine and triggers US sanctions, according to Regulatory Intelligence Thomson Reuters.

The United States, European Union and Britain have repeatedly warned President Putin against attacking Ukraine, after Russia deployed about 100.000 troops near the border with its former Soviet neighbour.

Earlier this year, several Ukrainian websites were hit by cyber attacks that left warnings to 'fear and hope for the worst', as Russia had amassed troops near the Ukrainian border. Ukraine's state security service SBU said it saw signs the attack was linked to a hacker group linked to Russia's intelligence services.

In this regard, Russian officials say the West is gripped by Russophobia and has no right to lecture Moscow on how to act after it expanded its NATO military alliance eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

In addition, the Kremlin has also repeatedly denied Russia has any links to hacking around the world and said it is ready to cooperate with the United States and other countries to crack down on cybercrimes.

Nonetheless, regulators in Europe are very wary. The UK's National Cybersecurity Center has warned large organizations to increase their cybersecurity resilience amid deepening tensions in Ukraine.

On Tuesday, Mark Branson, head of German watchdog BaFin, told an online conference that cyberwarfare is intertwined with geopolitics and security.

To note, the White House also blamed Russia for the devastating 'NotPetya' cyberattack in 2017, when a virus paralyzed parts of Ukraine's infrastructure, as well as thousands of computers in dozens of countries.

The vulnerability was underscored again last year, when one of the world's largest hacking campaigns used US technology companies as springboards to compromise US government agencies, an attack the White House blamed on Russia's foreign intelligence services.

The attack breached software made by SolarWinds Corp, giving hackers access to thousands of companies using its products, spreading across Europe, where Denmark's central bank said the country's 'financial infrastructure' was affected.