On September 25, Vladimir Putin invited the US authorities to resume cooperation in the field of international information security, which began in 2013 but was frozen due to disagreements over Ukraine and Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

The President of the Russian Federation then stated that the dialogue in the cyber sphere should not be a "hostage" of political disputes, and proposed a four-point program for restoring cooperation.

In a statement, the Russian President said that "the risk of a large-scale confrontation in the digital sphere is one of the main strategic challenges of our time." "Special responsibility" for preventing cyberwarfare lies, as the Kremlin said, "on key players in the field of international information security," that is, primarily on Russia and the United States.

On October 7, in an interview with the Russia TV channel, Vladimir Putin complained that there was no response to his proposal from the United States. "Unfortunately, as with a number of our other initiatives, there is no response to this, I believe, very important topic, although there are continuing complaints against us about our hyperactivity in the information sphere, interference in elections there, and so on, which have absolutely no basis,” said Mr. Putin.

Russia intends to sharply increase the cost of information security, and mainly on cryptography, and not on personal data protection

According to the published draft of the Federal budget for the next three years, it was decided to increase the expenditures on information security in the amount of 2 billion rubles (25 million dollars) initially laid down for 2022–2023 to 16 billion rubles (204 million dollars). This is the most significant increase in the budget in comparison with other Federal projects included in the Digital Economy direction.

The authorities plan to pay the greatest attention to the development of domestic cryptography, the functioning of cyber polygons, filtering Internet traffic and countering computer attacks. At the same time, the creation and operation of the national center for the introduction of modern cryptography methods can take over more than half of the total budget of the Federal project.

Budget money should also be used to analyze the security of state systems. However, the largest expenditures are allocated for the technical implementation of various project areas: equipment, specialized software, and staffing and production support.

The disadvantage of the project is the lack of measures aimed at preventing data leaks and protecting the personal information of Russians. Analysts pointed out that it would be logical to allocate part of the funds to system security in matters of interaction between the state and citizens on digital platforms. In addition, according to market participants, specialized education and training of qualified specialists receive insufficient funding.

Ivan Mershkov, technical Director of NGRSOFTLAB, said that it is critically important to envisage measures to increase digital literacy among the population. The number of phishing attacks shows explosive growth, which will only increase with the increase in digital consumption.

Nevertheless, the increase in funding for this federal project was seen as a good sign, indicating that the issue of cybersecurity is coming to the fore in Russia.

 Smart watches, which are gaining popularity among Russians, are among the Internet of things (IoT) devices, which means that by hacking them, an attacker can get confidential user information, listen to their conversations and track their movement, said Ilyas Kireev, a leading promotion Manager at Crosstech Solutions Group.

According to him, the main problem of IoT devices is weak security mechanisms. The small product lifecycle means that there are no regular security updates and the device may have dangerous vulnerabilities.

"Vulnerabilities in IoT devices create favorable conditions for hackers to create large-scale botnets like Mirai and the most powerful DDoS attacks on the Internet," said he.

"Data can leak both via the Internet and via Bluetooth. Critical Bluetooth vulnerabilities allow executing arbitrary malicious code on the device and gain full control over the device's system, as well as carry out a man-in-the-middle attack (MiTM), which leads to the unauthorized interception of user data," added Mr. Kireev.

"An attacker can find out the PIN code from your card, passwords, your daily routine, and much more, which will give them full control over all your operations. For example, if a smart watch manufacturer uses centralized systems for storing and processing data, then one attack is enough to get all the data of customers," warned the expert.

According to Mr. Kireev, to protect yourself and your loved ones, you need to constantly update the software, not enter the CVV of bank cards and control the information transmitted.

It is interesting to note that lawmakers around the world have long expressed their concerns about the fact that smart watches can act as a spy that is always on the wrist. So, the German Federal Network Agency, which regulates the telecom industry, introduced a ban on the sale of smartwatches for children back in 2017. The agency said that devices with a built-in tracking function violate German law.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval announced that the Union government is set to come up with National Cyber Security Strategy 2020 for guaranteeing a safe, secured, trusted, and resilient cyberspace. 

The proposed strategy toward uniting all cybersecurity agencies for making sure about, reinforcing, and synergizing the cybersecurity ecosystem by closely connecting with businesses, citizens, and beyond.

That endeavors were being made by adversaries to exploit the crisis in the wake of the pandemic through different misinformation, fake news, and social media campaigns. 

"For our adversaries, the huge data floating around in cyberspace is a goldmine for extracting information to undermine the privacy of our citizens and add to the vulnerability of protecting data of our critical information infrastructure, “Mr. Doval said.

He said that phishing campaigns utilizing the Coronavirus theme targeted banks, defence, and critical infrastructure during this period. 

Mr. Doval drew attention to how various conspicuous UPI IDs and web portals were produced while fake Arogya Setu applications propped up to misuse individuals' data only hours after the Prime Minister announced the launch of the PM Cares fund. 

He stated, "Malicious domains and websites to the tune of around 5,000 were registered in a short span of time. We have also witnessed an increase of 500% in cybercrime owing to people’s limited awareness and poor cyber hygiene. Financial frauds have also increased tremendously owing to the increased reliance on digital payment platforms...”

He regretted that absence of indigenous digital solutions like information-sharing facilities and social media platforms had antagonistically influenced the country's self-reliance and cybersecurity. 

He encouraged new start-ups to think of solutions linked with the nation's requirements and build-up ability to guarantee that the country's critical cyber assets were being monitored by skillful native professionals in resonance with the Prime Minister's take for Atmanirbhar.

The creation of the Russian cloud services will allow protecting confidential data of not only ministries or departments, but also of ordinary Internet users, said political analyst Yuri Samonkin.

MTS group of companies announced the launch of a cloud service with an increased level of protection. It is assumed that the new service will be in demand among government organizations, ministries, departments and private companies that carry out government orders, said Oleg Motivilov, Director of MTS cloud business. According to him, the new system meets all the requirements of the law on personal data protection.

Russia is one of the leaders in the development of Internet technologies, said Yuri Samonkin, President of the Eurasian Institute of Youth Initiatives. He believes that the current realities of the Internet dictate the need to create new digital solutions, such as cloud storage.

According to him, many Russians use Western social networks and other Internet resources. Therefore, the issue of protecting their personal data, which is often "leaked", is very relevant.

On the eve of the upcoming elections, the issue of cyber defense is becoming even more acute. It is necessary to protect from external interference not only the personal data of the voters themselves but also the servers of the relevant departments.

"State and municipal portals should be located not on Western servers, but on domestic ones. This will avoid information leakage and hacking", concluded Mr. Samonkin.

Earlier, E Hacking News reported that Russia has worsened its position in the ranking of countries with the most stable segments of the national Internet, dropping from 11th to 13th place. 

Microsoft reports breaching of email accounts belonging to individuals associated with the Biden and Trump election campaigns by Chinese, Iranian, and Russian state-sponsored hackers. 

Tom Burt, Corporate VP for Customer Security and Trust at Microsoft, revealed the occurrences in a detailed blog post after Reuters announced about a portion of the Russian attacks against the Biden camp. 

"Most of these assaults" were recognized and blocked, which is what he added later and revealed in the blog post with respect to the additional attacks and furthermore affirmed a DNI report from August that asserted that Chinese and Iranian hackers were likewise focusing on the US election process.

 As indicated by Microsoft, the attacks conducted by Russian hackers were connected back to a group that the organization has been tracking under the name of Strontium and the cybersecurity industry as APT28 or Fancy Bear. 

 While Strontium generally carried out the spear-phishing email attacks, as of late, the group has been utilizing 'brute-force' and password spraying techniques as an integral technique to breaching accounts. 

Then again, the attacks by Iranian hackers originated from a group tracked as Phosphorous (APT35, Charming Kitten, and the Ajax Security Group). 

These attacks are a continuation of a campaign that began a year ago, and which Microsoft recognized and cautioned about in October 2019. At that point, Microsoft cautioned that the hackers focused on "a 2020 US presidential campaign" yet didn't name which one. 

Through some open-source detective work, a few individuals from the security community later linked the attacks to the Trump campaign. 

What's more, only a couple of days back Microsoft affirmed that the attacks are indeed focused on the Trump campaign, yet in addition unveiled a new activity identified with the said group. The attacks were likewise identified by Chinese groups. 

While presently there are several hacking groups that are assumed to work under orders and the security of the Chinese government, Microsoft said that the attacks focusing on US campaigns originated from a group known as Zirconium (APT31), which is a similar group that Google spotted not long ago, in June. 

Microsoft says it detected thousands of attacks coordinated by this group between March 2020 and September 2020, with the hackers accessing almost some 150 accounts during that time period.