Russia Improving Electronic Security in Response to NSA Spyware - Lawmaker

MOSCOW, (Sputnik) — Russia is working to improve its electronic security and systems reliability in order to respond to US National Security Agency (NSA) spyware programs, Russian lawmaker Frants Klintsevich told RIA Novosti Tuesday.

The remark follows an announcement made on Monday by Kaspersky Lab, a Moscow-based Internet security software company, on a broad surveillance program that was tracking data on computer hard disks worldwide. The company said a cyberattack team known as the Equation Group had infected the computers of 500 organizations worldwide with spying software, most of them in Iran and Russia.

"To date, we must understand that the strengthening of security and the creation of powerful programs is of great importance," Klintsevich said, "We need to be able to intercept any threats and defend our territory. Obviously, without electronics, there is nothing to do. We also carry out the work in this area and have something to offer."

The highly sophisticated spying program detected by Kaspersky Lab has been spreading malware on hard drives across the globe for about two decades.

Kaspersky Lab pointed at the similarity of the program with the Stuxnet spyware, allegedly used by the US NSA to infiltrate Iranian nuclear reactor systems in 2010. According to Tehran, the virus temporarily disabled about 1,000 of its nuclear enrichment centrifuges.