Russian Minister Says That Hackers Cannot Get to Russian Government National Security Data

Russian communications minister vows national security information is safely protected

TASS, October 5, 2014

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, October 5. /TASS/. Russian Minister of Communications pledged on Sunday that national security information in Russia is safely protected against cyber attacks.

“Secrets of state are safely protected. Russia has an entire school of making information security tools. There is and can be no threats,” he said in an interview with the Segodnya (Today) weekly programme on the NTV television channel.

As for cyber attacks, he said their numbers depended on what was happening in Russia and in the world. “We saw the biggest surge in cyber attacks during the Sochi Olympics. Somebody was keen for disrupting the work of these or those systems,” he said. “Another surge took place during the Crimean developments and the developments in Ukraine. It means that this is not a matter of power, it’s a matter of “soft war.” Information technologies are becoming an instrument during military political developments. So, it’s only natural that the level of technologies is raised and the state’s attention to these matters becomes more intense.”

A cyber attack in a narrower sense is an attack on information security of a computer system. In 2014 alone, Russian has come under 57 million such attacks.

Russian Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov also said, all of Russia’s top officials are using protected communications devices.

“We have special protected devices, including mobile communications tools, with data encryption equipment. We use these devices to discuss topics that can be classified as secrets of state. We never use ordinary mobile telephones, let alone iPhones to do that,” he said, adding that each state official was aware what could make up national security information.

He said that all classified information was discussed over protected stationary and wireless telephones with the use of data encryption tools. “These are state-of-the-art devices that are constantly upgraded,” he added.