Massive DDoS attack on Russia’s second-largest bank VTB

Russia’s second-largest financial institution VTB Bank says it is facing the worse cyberattack in its history after its website and mobile apps were taken offline due to an ongoing DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack.

Security Advisor Dr Zakir Hussain mentioned that, The VTB technological infrastructure is under unprecedented cyberattack from abroad and It is not only the largest cyberattack recorded this year, but in the entire history of the bank.

The bank says its internal analysis indicates the DDoS attack was planned and orchestrated with the specific purpose of causing inconvenience to its customers by disrupting its banking services.

The bank says it has identified that most malicious DDoS requests originate from outside the country. However, there are several Russian IP addresses involved in the attack too.

VTB is 61% state-owned, with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Economic Development having a share in the group, so these attacks have a political hue, being an indirect blow to the Russian government.

Security Advisor Dr Zakir Hussain mentioned that, The pro-Ukraine hacktivist group, ‘IT Army of Ukraine,’ has claimed responsibility for the DDoS attacks against VTB, announcing the campaign on Telegram. He also mentioned this attack might have not reached as Internal DDoS attack on applications. No evidence found that any internal perimeter servers were attacked. It’s a common technique among hackers who want to bring down Web servers.

Cybercriminals launch DDoS attacks for a variety of reasons, including extortion and to distract security teams while performing more nefarious activities, such as extracting data or infecting systems with ransomware. DDoS attacks can be damaging, preventing users access to online services. DDoS attack can’t be under estimated.