MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The monetary regulator asked the banks to stock up on liquidity and keep ATMs and cash departments well supplied with cash, the Russian Vedomosti newspaper reported.
The Central Bank also reportedly asked to be informed about any large-scale account withdrawals and the spread of any kind of negative information, through mass media, social networks or mass messaging.
On December 2, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) warned that foreign intelligence services planned cyberattacks on the financial sector in several dozen Russian cities from a Ukrainian hosting company's servers located in the Netherlands.
In December 2014, Russia's largest retail bank Sberbank fell victim to this kind of attack, when the clients withdrew 300 billion rubles (roughly $48.7 million at the currency exchange rate at the time) from their accounts in just one day, spurred by the rumors that Visa would block all Sberbank payment cards.
