Wannacry cyber attack compromised some Russian banks: central bank

[May 19, 2017]  MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Wannacry cyber attack compromised Russian banks' systems in some isolated cases, the Russian central bank said on Friday, in the first official acknowledgement by Moscow that the attack had an impact on the banking system.

A screenshot shows a WannaCry ransomware demand, provided by cyber security firm Symantec, in Mountain View, California, U.S. May 15, 2017. Courtesy of Symantec/Handout via REUTERS

In a statement, the central bank said the consequences of the attack -- which it did not detail -- had been dealt with quickly. The central bank had previously said Russian banks were targeted in the cyber attack late last week, but that the attack had been unsuccessful.

On Friday, the central bank said it had sent recommendations to Russian banks on updating their Windows software in April, before the Wannacry attack it said it had recorded on May 12.

After the Wannacry attack, the central bank reissued its recommendations to Russian banks, it said, adding it would start to publish on its website statements about cyber attacks it had caught as well as steps taken to reinforce IT security.

Russia's largest bank Sberbank said late last week it had been attacked by a virus attack but that viruses had not got into its systems.

Sberbank and rival bank VTB did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment on Friday.

Russia's relationship to cyber crime is under intense scrutiny after U.S. intelligence officials alleged that Russian hackers had tried to help Republican Donald Trump win the U.S. presidency by hacking Democratic Party servers.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied the allegation.

(Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Christian Lowe)

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