Speaking on Monday (9/9), Kaspersky Lab Managing Director for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Anna Kulashova, said more than half of Kaspersky Lab product users in Russia were targeted by hackers during the first eight months of this year.
He noted that government and financial institutions, as well as telecommunications, media and industry are the most common targets for cybercriminals.
“To break into institutions, hackers can exploit vulnerabilities in publicly available applications, and steal login credentials, which can be obtained through password cracking, including through small companies acting as contractors for larger businesses,” Kulashova said, as quoted by RTTuesday (10/9).
He noted that a pressing challenge is posed by hacktivism, where cybercriminals cause damage to business operations to draw attention to social or political issues, but that most cyberattacks are carried out for financial gain or espionage.
Kulashova recalled that in July, Kaspersky Lab discovered two waves of mailings addressed to domestic businesses, containing malicious software or links.
“These files were sent to around a thousand employees in the manufacturing, financial and energy sectors, as well as government agency staff. If the attack was successful, cybercriminals could gain remote access to the computers and download confidential files and documents,” he explained.
He also said the hackers had carried out a series of sophisticated, targeted attacks on Russian IT companies and government agencies.
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“The malware campaign, carried out by exploiting public cloud infrastructure, including Yandex Cloud and Dropbox, was aimed at stealing confidential information,” Kulashova said. 
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