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Showing posts with label Central Bank of Russia. Show all posts
Russia
Binance Central Bank of Russia China Crypto Ban Crypto Currency Crypto Mining Cyber Security Russia

Financier Diakonov Called Russia the Future Cryptocurrency Center of the World

 

Mr. Diakonov predicted the future of cryptocurrency and called it a possible alternative to traditional money. "Time will tell how it will be built into the system of international payments and trade," he said.
The financier also stated that Russia can become a cryptocurrency world center since it has the necessary knowledge, capabilities and technologies to create this product. However, it is difficult to guess when this scenario will come to life,since the concepts of cryptocurrencies proposed by the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank do not reflect the current situation. 

"If the task is to transfer part of the international settlements into the "new currency," in case this instrument will acquire the scale, then sanctions measures from the West may affect it as well. And we may see the next prohibitive measures of an international nature," he explained. 

According to Mr. Diakonov, China, as Russia's largest business partner, is not yet ready to switch to cryptocurrency trading. However, he suggested that the country would start using the digital yuan. "Here we see great prospects for creating new synthetic products that will become a growth point for the economy," he concluded. 

Earlier, the founder and CEO of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao, said that next year there will be more transparency in the regulation of crypto-assets, and this is a positive signal for the market. In addition, there will be new options for their use. But the crypto market moves cyclically, and an upturn is followed by a downturn. Whether it happens next year or later is hard to predict. Asset volatility will continue regardless of who comes to the market. "Our personal goal for next year is to get as many licenses around the world as we can; we expect to get 10 to 20 more licenses next year." 

In addition, there will be new ways to use them. But the crypto market moves cyclically, and a period of recovery is followed by a recession – it will happen next year or later, it is difficult to predict. Asset volatility will continue regardless of who comes to the market. "Our personal goal for next year is to get as many licenses around the world as possible. We expect to get another 10-20 licenses next year." 

Earlier, the Ministry of Finance submitted to the government a bill on the legalization of cryptocurrencies. According to the document, Russians will have the right to legally invest up to 600 thousand rubles ($7,600) in cryptocurrency annually. However, this will require special testing.
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Technology
Central Bank of Russia Crypto Currency Crypto Currency law crypto legalisation Crypto Mining Technology

The Ministry of Finance Proposed to Test Russians Before Buying Cryptocurrencies

 

On February 18, the Ministry of Finance submitted a bill on the regulation of cryptocurrencies to the government. At the same time, public discussions began. On Monday, February 21, the agency published details of the document on its official website. 

According to the proposal of the Ministry of Finance, the use of digital currencies as a means of payment in Russia will continue to be prohibited. However, the Ministry of Finance suggests leaving cryptocurrencies only as a tool for investment. The bill defined the requirements for exchanges and exchangers that will deal with cryptocurrencies. 

Foreign cryptocurrency exchanges will have to register in Russia in order to obtain a license. The Ministry of Finance proposes to allow transactions with the purchase or sale of cryptocurrencies only if the client is identified. The deposit and withdrawal of cryptocurrencies will be possible only through banks using a bank account. 

Exchanges must inform citizens about the high risks associated with purchasing digital currencies. Citizens will undergo online testing before purchasing cryptocurrencies, which will determine the level of knowledge of the specifics of investing in digital currencies and awareness of possible risks. 

According to the official website of the Ministry of Finance, "with successful testing, citizens can invest up to 600 thousand rubles in digital currencies annually. If the testing is not passed, then the maximum amount of investment will be limited to 50 thousand rubles (about 0.015 bitcoins at the time of writing the news). Qualified investors and legal entities will make transactions without restrictions." 

The agency also proposes to consolidate the definition of digital mining as an activity aimed at obtaining cryptocurrency. The Ministry of Finance noted that they had received proposals from the Bank of Russia on the introduction of a ban on the organization of the issuance and circulation of digital currencies. 

Last week it became known that the Central Bank proposes to ban not only the organization of the issuance of cryptocurrencies and their circulation but also the dissemination of information about them. Also, the Central Bank prohibits banks and other financial market participants from owning private digital currencies. 

In addition, on February 18, the Central Bank proposed to introduce fines of up to one million rubles ($12,700) for the issue of private cryptocurrency. If the bill is adopted, individuals may face fines in the amount of 300 ($3,800) to 500 ($6,300) thousand rubles, and organizations from 700 thousand ($8,800) to one million rubles ($12,700). 

Earlier, CySecurity News reported that the Kremlin and the Russian government have estimated the Russian cryptocurrency market at $214 billion.
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Russia
Central Bank of Russia Crypto Currency Crypto Currency law crypto legalisation Cyber Security Russia

The Ministry of Finance of Russia Named the Main Threat of Cryptocurrency Ban in Russia

Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev said that the ban on cryptocurrencies and mining could slow down the development of new technologies and services, lead to the outflow of highly qualified specialists abroad, and the loss of tax revenues. 
Mr. Moiseev recalled that the relevance of cryptocurrency regulation is due to the growing popularity of citizens' investments in such assets. 

"We need to create clear and transparent rules for the participation of citizens and businesses in the financial instruments of the crypto market. The concept provides for the traceability of cash flows and crypto transactions, as well as the identification of users," the official stressed. 

He added that the only legal participant in the crypto market will be banks and exchanges that will oblige to comply with all the requirements of anti-money laundering legislation. "As for investors, they will be divided into qualified and unskilled, that is, those who do not have the necessary knowledge in working with digital financial instruments," he recalled. 

According to him, clear regulation excludes the possibility of a parallel financial system appearing in Russia, introduces clear rules of the game for market participants, and creates tools to protect investors' rights. In the case of a ban, all of them could automatically become violators of the law, and these are millions of people. 

Last week, the Bank of Russia stressed that it was in favor of reducing the interest of Russians in the cryptocurrency market. Elvira Nabiullina, head of the regulator, noted that the concept of regulating digital assets, which was proposed by the Ministry of Finance and approved by the government, does not allow to mitigate the risks, which the Central Bank warned about. 

In January, the Bank of Russia published a report "Cryptocurrencies: Trends, risks, measures", in which, in order to reduce threats, it proposed to ban the issuance, mining and circulation of cryptocurrencies in Russia. The central bank proposed to introduce a ban on the organization of the issuance or circulation of cryptocurrencies on the territory of Russia, to establish responsibility for its violation. 

The concept of the Ministry of Finance provides for the regulation of cryptocurrencies in Russia without their prohibition. The Ministry believes that the complete absence of regulation or prohibition of cryptocurrencies will destabilize the industry, increasing the share of the shadow economy and the growth of fraud, and law enforcement will not be able to effectively respond to crimes using such instruments. 

At the end of January, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the government and the Central Bank to come to a consensus on the regulation of cryptocurrencies and report on the results. So, by February 18, the Ministry of Finance, together with the Bank of Russia, should prepare a bill on the regulation of cryptocurrencies.
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Sberbank
Central Bank of Russia Cyber Insurance Cyber Security droppers Russia Sberbank

Sberbank Called the Average Size of the Insurance Payment Cheated by Cybercriminals

 

The cybersecurity company Positive Technologies said in January that customers of credit institutions who actively use online banking will become one of the main targets of hackers this year. According to experts, attackers will use both tools for hacking applications and social engineering techniques. Credit institutions previously informed that they see the interest of fraudsters in online applications and strengthen anti-fraud systems. 

It is worth noting that most companies do not show interest in cybercrime insurance. However, credit organizations resort to this service to protect their cardholders. 

Olesya Dunayeva, the owner of the Save Finance product of Sberbank, said that payments to SberInsurance customers are made within the sums insured. About 10,000 insured events were settled for all risks of the program in 2021, the average payment amounted to 20,500 rubles ($270). 

Bank customers can receive insurance payouts in cases where intruders got hold of card data by calling on behalf of the bank or the police. Also, insurance is valid if the money was stolen when paying for goods and services on fake sites, using phishing, viruses, unsecured Wi-Fi, and as a result of account hacking. 

According to the Central Bank, in the third quarter of last year, fraudsters stole 3.2 billion rubles (42 million dollars) from bank customers, which is 18% more than in the same period of 2020. The attackers performed 256,198 operations without the consent of consumers. Citizens were able to return 7.7% of the funds stolen by fraudsters. In the second quarter, more than 3 billion rubles (39’6 million dollars) were stolen from bank customers, and in the first quarter — almost 2.9 billion rubles (38’2 million dollars). 

Earlier, VTB offered to allow banks to completely block the possibility of withdrawing and withdrawing funds from the accounts of droppers (intermediaries through which fraudsters cash out funds stolen from citizens) for up to 30 days. 

As Anatoly Pechatnikov, Deputy President and Chairman of the Management Board of a credit institution, explained, now, when fraudsters gain access to the accounts of bank customers, they first withdraw money to the accounts of droppers in other credit institutions, and then cash out the stolen money. Banks cannot stop such operations, even if such an “intermediary” account has already been identified and blocked.
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Russia
bloomberg Central Bank of Russia Crypto Currency Crypto Currency law crypto legalisation Cyber Security Digital Asset digital currency Russia

The Moscow Kremlin and the Russian Government Have Estimated the Russian Cryptocurrency Market at $214 Billion

 

Bloomberg claims, citing its own sources that the Kremlin and the Russian government have estimated the Russian cryptocurrency market at $214 billion. This assessment is used during the development of a plan to regulate the industry. 

The volume of cryptocurrency held by Russians was calculated in January 2022 by analyzing the IP addresses of major cryptocurrency exchange users and other information. The agency writes that the estimate may be an underestimate because many traders hide their activities. 

In November 2021, the Central Bank of Russia estimated the annual volume of transactions of Russians with digital assets at $5 billion. The data were obtained based on the results of a survey of large banking organizations in July 2021. The Central Bank also noted that Russian users are among the most active participants in the digital currency market. Russia is among the leaders in the number of visits to digital currency exchanges. 

Later, during the parliamentary hearings, Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma Committee on Financial Market, estimated investments of Russian residents in cryptocurrencies at $194 million. Aksakov stressed that unqualified investors are also interested in digital assets, so the authorities need to determine the position on digital assets and legislate it. 

It is interesting to note that on January 20, the Central Bank published a report for public discussion, in which it proposed to ban the issuance, circulation, and exchange of cryptocurrencies in Russia, as well as the organization of these operations. The regulator also considers it necessary to ban the mining of digital assets and start monitoring the investments of Russians in cryptocurrency on foreign trading platforms. 

However, after the Central Bank report, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko approved a roadmap on cryptocurrencies, which proposes the regulation of cryptocurrencies, rather than their prohibition, identification of customers, responsibility for illegal trafficking of digital assets, as well as the development of a methodology for assessing the value of cryptocurrencies. 

Representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Prosecutor General's Office, Rosfinmonitoring, the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Tax Service, the Ministry of Finance, and the Bank of Russia participated in the development of the roadmap. 

On January 26, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the government and the Central Bank to come to a consensus on the regulation of digital assets. The Head of state said that he was familiar with the discussion concerning the regulation of cryptocurrencies. 

Earlier, CySecurity News reported that the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska criticized the Central Bank for allegedly “infantilely closing his eyes to the growing cryptocurrency market.” As an argument, the billionaire cited the actions of the US Treasury, which, according to him, invests in the crypto industry.
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Russian Cyber Security
Central Bank of Russia Cyber Attacks Russia Russian Cyber Security

Hacker group attacked a bank's correspondent account in the Central Bank of Russia

For the first time in three years, the company's cybersecurity specialists Group-IB have identified a successful attack on the interbank transfer system of the AWP KBR (automated workstation of a client of the Bank of Russia).

In February 2021, the attackers carried out a hacker attack against one of the banks and stole funds, gaining access to the interbank transfer system of the AWP KBR. Analysts of the cybersecurity company Group-IB associate the hacking with the activities of the MoneyTaker group involved in previous similar attacks.

According to the Group-IB report, the attack began in June 2020 "through the compromise of a company affiliated with the bank," after which the bank's internal network was investigated for six months. 

In 2021, the attackers registered fake domain names using the name of the bank and the zone .org and .com, not .ru. After that, the attackers "stole digital keys and later used them to sign payments passing through the transport gateway of the Bank of Russia."

Hackers were able to steal more than 500 million rubles ($6.7 million). 

The experts emphasized that in the future, an increase in the number of such crimes is expected. “Taking into account the fact that we are more and more involved in electronic payments, then there will be more and more attempts to violate the law in this area”, said Nikolay Kulbaka, Financial Analyst and Associate Professor of Economics at RANEPA.

It is interesting to note that the hacker group Moneymaker was able to steal money from a Russian bank from its account in the Central Bank for the first time since 2018. Then more than 58 million rubles ($781 thousand) were withdrawn from the account of PIR Bank to the Central Bank. In the same year, the Central Bank revoked the license from PIR Bank due to violations of anti-laundering legislation.

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Russian Cyber Security
Central Bank of Russia Cyber Security Russia Russian Cyber Security

Russia's Central Bank has warned of hackers targeting banks' mobile apps

 The Central Bank of Russia has warned of the emergence of a group of hackers investigating vulnerabilities in banks' mobile applications.

The Bank of Russia has detected a shift in hackers' attention from the banking infrastructure to customers' financial mobile applications in order to steal data or money from their accounts. The regulator suggests that a highly skilled hacker group has emerged in the financial market specializing in the deep analysis of mobile applications in order to detect and exploit weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

The survey is based on information exchange between the Central Bank and financial market participants. 818 organizations, including 365 banks, are currently included to it.

"The data available to the Bank of Russia suggests the emergence of at least one group of attackers focused on the skilled hacking of financial mobile applications," the survey said.

The Central Bank cited two examples in which cybercriminals discovered vulnerabilities in mobile apps and used them for hacking. As a result, in the first case, a server containing files with the personal data of a bank's customers - more than 100,000 lines - was published on the Web: Name, gender, mobile phone number, email address, place of work, account and bank card number, account type, currency. In the second case, the hackers managed to steal money by logging into the bank's mobile app and, when making a transfer, substituting their account number with that of another bank customer, who became the victim.

"These two examples are not the only cases of attacks on mobile applications of financial institutions that have occurred recently," the review specifies. In this regard, the Central Bank has recommended banks to strengthen the protection of mobile components of remote service systems.


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Russia
Bank Cyber Security Central Bank of Russia Cyber Security IT Security News Russia

Banks offered the Central Bank of Russia to create a centralized mechanism to combat fraudsters

According to the Vice-President of the Association of Banks of Russia Alexey Voilukov, information processing can take several hours or even days, while a fraudster can withdraw money from the card within an hour.

President of the Association of Banks of Russia Georgy Luntovsky sent a letter to Vadim Uvarov, Director of the Information Security Department of the Bank of Russia, with a proposal to organize direct interaction between market participants in order to exchange data on suspicious transactions.

Now financial organizations use an automated system to inform the Regulator about all operations that have signs of being performed without the knowledge of customers. Then the Regulator accumulates all the collected data about attacks and returns them to banks in a consolidated form. According to Alexey Voilukov, information processing can take several hours or even days, while a fraudster can withdraw money from the card to which they were withdrawn within an hour. 

Mr. Voilukov noted that the creation of a centralized mechanism will speed up the exchange of information by about five times, and the time for providing information in some cases will be reduced to 20-30 minutes.

"For example, several people complained to the Bank about unauthorized transfers within an hour. It detects a fraudulent account and promptly sends information about it to the organizations from which the money was transferred. With a quick response, there is a chance to prevent theft," he explained Mr. Voilukov. According to him, this scheme of work will allow us to fight against fraudsters who work using social engineering methods.

The Central Bank told that they will study the proposals. VTB, MKB, Rosbank and Tinkoff support the Association of Banks of Russia initiative. VTB added that the system for exchanging information on incidents needs to be improved, as this will speed up and automate the processes of the rapid response of banks to fraudulent attacks.

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