19 Sept 2015

Russia reports 'very powerful' hack of Kremlin



Russia’s government said somebody launched a “very powerful” cyberattack on the nation’s government, including a hit on the Kremlin’s defense systems that slowed operations for a time.


Reuters said the attack targeted the election commission in Russia.

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“Defense systems worked though it was not easy,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, the Hill reported. “The attack was rather strong.”

Peskov said Russian authorities haven’t yet determined the source of the attack, but said it was tied to Sunday’s political elections. That race only allowed one opposition candidate to run against the Kremlin-backed politico – a controvsial limit that angered many seeking fresh faces in the government.

“Given that, you will certainly be interested to know that from 5 to 10 a.m. on Sunday a very powerful attack was simultaneously carried out on the Russian president’s website,” Peskov said.

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Overseas media said the hackers hailed from the United States, and tried to sway election results.

“Someone tried to hack our website and alter the data there, making 50,000 requests per minute,” said Russian Central Election Commission Chairman Vladimir Churov, at the press conference. “They failed and we have already established the culprit – it’s a company based in San Francisco.”

The hack comes at a time when the United States has been fending off several high-profile cyberattacks, one of which compromised millions of records of past and present federal employees, via the Office of Personnel Management’s site, as WND previously reported. The Chinese have been fingered in the OPM attack, as well as others that have hit U.S. businesses.
http://www.wnd.com/2015/09/russia-reports-very-powerful-hack-of-kremlin/