Russia says it prevented 25 million cyber attacks, other acts during World Cup

Russia prevented nearly 25M cyber attacks and other criminal acts against its information infrastructure.

Russia prevented nearly 25 million cyber attacks and other criminal acts against its information infrastructure related to the soccer World Cup, the Kremlin quoted President Vladimir Putin as saying.

The comments were made during Putin’s meeting with the security council organized for the World Cup on July 15 evening, soon after the tournament ended.

Besides, the US intelligence chief warned on July 13 that the threat was growing for a devastating cyber assault on critical US infrastructure, saying the “warning lights are blinking red again” nearly two decades after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are launching daily cyber strikes on the computer networks of federal, state and local government agencies, US corporations, and academic institutions said Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.

Of the four, “Russia has been the most aggressive foreign actor, no question,” he said. Coats spoke at the Hudson Institute think tank shortly after the Department of Justice announced the indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence officers on charges of hacking into the computers of the 2016 US presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton and Democratic Party organizations.

The indictment and Coats’ comments came three days before US President Donald Trump was to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for talks in Helsinki, Trump’s first formal summit with Putin.