MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The development of IT technologies has allowed hackers to imitate cyberattacks from any place they choose and make the traces point to Moscow, Russia's Security Council Assistant Secretary Alexander Venediktov said Tuesday.
"The modern technical means are capable of imitating a cyberattack from any part of the world… You can, for example, hack the data base of the European Bank sitting in a house in front of it and when necessary carry out the operation in such a way that the traces will point to Moscow," Venediktov told Russian Argumenty i Fakty newspaper in an interview.
Russia has repeatedly been accused of launching cyberattacks to influence foreign elections. In late 2016, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) claimed that Russia had deliberately targeted Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign because it wanted then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to win the election.
Moscow has repeatedly dismissed allegations about Russia's involvement in cyberattacks as groundless.
According to Venediktov, no one has yet provided any evidence that Russia was behind the cyberattacks in either Europe or the United States.
On Friday, in an interview with the NBC channel, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the hackers who leaked sensitive documents belonging to the Democratic Party last year could have been from anywhere, including the United States.