Ukrainian intelligence hackers have reportedly launched a major cyberattack on MTS Bank, one of Russia’s leading financial institutions. The attack, carried out by the Cyber Corps of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, started on November 19, 2024, and has caused widespread disruptions to the bank’s services. A large-scale Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack targeted the bank’s infrastructure, resulting in issues with its online applications, mobile services, and payment systems. As a result, many users in Russia are unable to access basic banking functions, such as making transfers, withdrawing funds, or paying for services.
MTS Bank’s MTS-Business online banking platform also experienced significant downtime, impacting businesses and disrupting service provision and payments. This disruption has led to frustration among Russian users, with many reporting that they are unable to complete routine banking tasks. Some clients have even reported unauthorized debiting of funds from their accounts. Despite the severity of the attack, the bank’s support team has denied that any external cyberattack was responsible for the problems and has been reportedly removing comments from dissatisfied customers.
This cyberattack is part of an ongoing series of cyber operations believed to be carried out by Ukrainian intelligence. In recent months, Ukrainian hackers have been targeting Russian financial institutions with increasing frequency. Earlier in November, cyberattacks were launched against banks in Crimea, resulting in similar disruptions. Previous attacks in September targeted Rosselkhozbank and Moscow Credit Bank, leading to their websites going offline temporarily.
The escalation of these cyberattacks highlights the growing use of cyber warfare in the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Ukrainian intelligence has increasingly relied on cyber operations to disrupt Russian infrastructure, including financial services. While MTS Bank’s official response continues to downplay the attack, the incident underscores the vulnerability of critical financial systems to cyber threats, especially amid geopolitical tensions.
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