Home » Business News • Spotlight » CrowdStrike boss says US banks fear Russian cyber attacks
CrowdStrike boss says US banks fear Russian cyber attacks
https://www.whatjobs.com/news/business-news/crowdstrike-boss-says-us-banks-fear-russian-cyber-attacks
By Nagasunder in Business News, posted February 28, 2022
CrowdStrike's CEO has confirmed bank executives in the United States are concerned about a potential Russian cyberattack.
George Kurtz said he’s been speaking with US bank executives, and they’re worried about possibly being the target of Russian cyberattacks.
His comments came on CNBC's "Mad Money" on Thursday, February 24, after Russia invaded Ukraine, rising geopolitical strains between Russia and the West.
READ MORE: US NAVY AND MARINES LOOK TO VETERANS FOR CYBERSECURITY AS FOCUS CHANGES TOWARDS EXPERIENCE
The US and European nations on Thursday, February 24, issued further authorizations against Russia, including multiple financial institutions in the country.
Kurtz, whose cloud-focused cybersecurity firm works with 14 of the 20 largest US banks, said: “I’ve talked to a lot of banks recently, a lot of senior executives, and they’re concerned,”
Kurtz raised his fears over the consequences of the so-called wiper viruses can have, saying: “They’re very concerned about what might happen here, and they should be, they are designed to basically wipe a system.
"When we think about cyber, it has no boundaries for collateral damage.”
Officials in the US think Russian agents were behind a series of cyberattacks against Ukrainian government websites this month, the most recent of which occurred on Wednesday, February 23.
Some Ukrainian banks were also impacted.
Washington has accused Russians of carrying out a series of cyberattacks in recent years, including the SolarWinds hack in 2020, which affected a number of US government institutions, including the State Department.
Kurtz added that both the US and Russia have “great cyber capabilities that governments and corporations “have to be ready” because cyber will play a critical part in any modern war.
Kurtz said: “Unfortunately, 85 percent of the infrastructure is owned by private companies, and when we think about that critical infrastructure, it isn’t always up to the level we would like from a cybersecurity perspective.
We’ve seen that with some of the pipelines” possibly referring to last year’s Colonial Pipeline attack”
Kurtz praised US banks for their handling of cybersecurity,
He said: "The banks, from a sector perspective, have done a great job.
"There’s a lot of regulation around what they do.
“Thankfully, they have the money to actually put in a mature cybersecurity technology."
It's uncertain what will happen next in terms of cyberattacks. However, Kurtz believes the true issue must be a back-and-forth escalation.
He said: “Part of the challenge in cyber is there really aren’t norms. I think a lot of the norms have been violated here in conventional warfare.
"But there are no norms in cyber, so what happens with this escalation is really going to be interesting.”
Crowdstrike is based in Austin,Texas and employs 1,238 around the world.
Source: CNBC
Follow WhatNews on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook
