Putin orders digital security measures after attacks in Russia

O Russian President Vladimir Putin today ordered the immediate strengthening of the country’s digital security mechanisms, considering that computer threats against the Russian economy have reached a “new level”.

During a cybersecurity meeting in the Kremlin, Putin linked increased threats to the war in Ukraine and the advancement of digitisation.

According to the Head of State, the combination of these factors poses a danger to “ logistics, transport, social services, life support systems and public administration.”.

Putin demanded improvements in “all components of the national digital security system” and “tools for rapid response to cyberattacks”.

The Russian President called for further coordination between security forces, information services, telecommunications operators, financial institutions, Internet companies and other entities.

The meeting took place after a series of attacks by Ukraine in recent days against data centers of Russian technology company Yandex.

The spokesperson for the Kremlin, Dmitri Peskov, recognized on Tuesday that the company was going through “difficulties”, expressing confidence that it could solve them by its own means.

The meeting also attended by Sberbank's executive president, Herman Gref, at a time when the largest Russian bank confirmed a new Ukrainian attack on one of its data centres in the Saratov region.

Vice-Chairman of the Bank’s Board of Directors, Alexander Vediakhin, told Interfax that despite the attack, all systems function “normally” and were not registered victims.