OREANDA-NEWS. In 2020, Kaspersky Lab recorded a “wave of targeted attacks on large banks of several countries in tropical Africa”, the company’s press service told the Russian media. Experts at the Lab suggest that the Russian-speaking hacker group Silence is behind the attacks.

“From the first days of 2020, Kaspersky Lab solutions block hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of attacks on banking infrastructure in Africa every day. Previously, attackers focused on organizations in Eastern Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America, and since the end of 2019 their focus has shifted, which indicates a rapid expansion of the geography of attacks”, said Sergei Golovanov, a leading antivirus expert at Kapersky Lab.

Hackers from Russian-speaking groups almost stopped attacking Russian banks and switched to foreign credit organizations, said Group-IB, which specializes in cybersecurity issues. New groups often start working in the home region, but for them this is just a test site, as was the case with Silence, the company said. Now the Russian-speaking group has focused on goals in Asia, Africa, Europe and America.