According to a U.S. Treasury official, last month the Treasury Department neutralized cyberattacks by a pro-Russian hacking group, thereby avoiding disruption and proving the effectiveness of the Department’s tighter framework for cybersecurity in the financial system.
The U.S. Treasury blamed the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on Killnet, a Russian cybercrime hacking group that made headlines earlier this year when it threatened to shut down U.K. hospital ventilators after a member of their cybercrime gang was arrested in London.
According to Todd Conklin, cybersecurity counselor to Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, the Russian hacking group also claimed responsibility for disrupting the websites of several U.S. states and airports in October.
On October 11, Killnet also claimed to have attacked JP Morgan Chase & Co’s network infrastructure, but the bank did not report any impact on its business.
Conklin described the attack on the Treasury Department as “pretty low-level DDoS activity targeting the Treasury’s critical infrastructure nodes.”
For his part, Adeyemo said, “The Biden administration has elevated cybersecurity threat focus, as well as ramping up partnerships with the financial and regulatory sectors far ahead of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine to ensure swift, coordinated responses to thwart cyberattacks.”
He went on to say that the event was a timely reminder that the Treasury and financial services companies face the same threats, especially since Russia launched its war against Ukraine in February, and that the Treasury quickly shared internet protocol (IP) addresses used in the attack with financial services firms in accordance with the new procedures put in place by the Biden administration.
The sources for this piece include an article in Reuters.
