MOSCOW, May 27. /TASS/. Russia knows firsthand that a number of Western governments are creating entire IT armies out of cybercriminals to wage hybrid wars, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alimov said at the 1st International Security Forum under the auspices of the Russian Security Council.
He noted that digitalization today affects virtually all spheres of human activity, and information and communication technologies "have simultaneously become indispensable assistants and turned into tools for criminals." "Unfortunately, we must acknowledge today that the overall state of international information security has been deteriorating over the past year," Alimov said during a roundtable discussion on International Cooperation in Information Security. "We must not forget, of course, about cybercrime, the scale of which is growing each year. Some unscrupulous governments are actively recruiting cybercriminals, under the guise of so-called IT armies, to conduct hybrid operations against their adversaries."
"We in Russia know this firsthand," the Deputy Foreign Minister added. "Hackers are adopting the latest technologies, including artificial intelligence, which significantly simplifies and accelerates attacks and breaches, dramatically increasing their damage. This is well known."
