MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/. Washington has not provided any "hard evidence" of cyberattacks allegedly carried out by Russia via bilateral hotlines, Artur Lyukmanov, the director of the Department of International Information Security at the Russian Foreign Ministry and special presidential representative for international cooperation in the field of information security has said.

No "hard evidence" of Russia's allegedly malicious activities using ICTs through the existing bilateral hotlines with Washington, established in 2013 specifically for investigating computer attacks, has been presented, Lyukmanov said in a commentary to Newsweek magazine. Instead, "the US builds up offensive ICT-capabilities, conducts 'hunt-forward' operations against Russia and employs its clients abroad."

Lyukmanov pointed to the "IT Army of Ukraine" as one such client. A number of NATO cyber labs in Eastern Europe serve a similar purpose, according to the diplomat. Moreover, Lyukmanov stressed that the US cyber strategy adopted in March 2023 empowered the US National Security Agency to "punish those that engage in disruptive, destructive, or destabilizing malicious cyber activity."

The US Advanced Intelligence Research Agency, the Naval Institute, government foundations and private companies "are involved in preparations for 'cognitive warfare’," Lyukmanov pointed out.

This escalation increases the risks of a confrontation, the diplomat warned. He pointed out that Russia had previously expressed concerns about the NSA's illegal mass surveillance program, which is continued annually through an extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and is applied outside the United States.

Big data corporations also service this policy and, in this respect, they are similar to East India Companies in terms of how they dictate their interests to the rest of the world, Lyukmanov said.