Hacker groups issue threat to European banking system

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According to a combined video statement issued online by the organisations, three hacker groups, Anonymous Sudana, REvil, and Killnet, plan to undertake a cyberattack on European banks.

According to them, the strikes will be carried out in response to the West’s supply of weaponry to Ukraine. Since February of last year, the country has been at odds with neighboring Russia. In reaction to its military operation in Ukraine, Russia received unprecedented economic penalties from the EU and was isolated from the worldwide SWIFT money-transfer system.

“This isn’t a DDoS attack; the games have ended.” We urge all active groups to carry out damaging actions against the European banking system. “There is no money, no weapons, and no Kiev regime,” an unidentified Killnet representative says in the video.

“Many European banks will be targeted, and we will hit without mercy,” said the Anonymous Sudan spokesman.

The commander of Killnet, known as Killmilk, revealed to Lenta.ru on Thursday that preparations for the attack were ongoing and that the action would commence within 48 hours.

Apart from direct attacks on banks, IT experts predict that hackers will target the SWIFT system, which underpins the vast bulk of international banking transactions. They are skeptical that such an attack will be successful.

“It’s impossible to predict how seriously we should take this. DDoS attacks are carried out by Anonymous Sudan and Killnet. Their attacks were either ineffectual or had a minor impact. REvil used ransomware and had never been involved in ‘hacktivism’ before… “However, it’s still worth keeping an eye out for this,” Daan Keuper, chief researcher at the Dutch cybersecurity firm Computest, told RTL Nieuws.

According to IT industry analyst Yevgeny Gorbov, the alleged large-scale attack is unlikely to succeed because to the layers of protection engaged in financial systems.

“To launch a cyberattack on Europe’s banking system, you must first hack it.” Everything is controlled by multiple data centers, and an attack on one of them will have no effect. Even if they close it for a day or a week, the banking system will not collapse and will continue to function. “A few banks may be attacked, but the consequences are unlikely to be catastrophic,” Gorbov told NEWS.ru.

According to media sources, Killnet was reportedly responsible for the hacking of many NATO websites, the FBI database, and a Lufthansa IT outage.

There had been no reports of attacks on European financial institutions as of Saturday morning.