MOSCOW, June 27. /TASS/. This year, Russia’s National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents together with its foreign partners were able to foil hacker attacks against more than 7,000 facilities in Russia and other member-states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a post-Soviet security bloc, the center’s deputy head, Nikolai Murashov said.

"Thanks to such preventive measures this year alone malware attacks against more than 7,000 critical infrastructure facilities in Russia and CSTO member-states have been thwarted. This effective regional cooperation is highly needed," Murashov explained.

According to the seasoned specialist, the National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents is actively exchanging data on computer incidents with its partners from 122 countries. "More and more critical

information infrastructure facilities have been plugging into our response system and its branches and industry segments are rapidly growing," he said.

Overseas partners are also sharing data on malicious activity that they encounter "on the ground." "We are putting together recommendations on combating these threats and we are promptly informing interested parties about them," the cyber official added.

This preventive effort enables Russia to quickly thwart computer viruses nationwide and abroad. "Our cooperation is constantly on the rise. This year alone, we have reviewed more than 3,500 requests from our foreign colleagues," the expert said, adding that Russia has sent nearly the same number of requests to response teams from other countries.

Murashov noted that under Russian law, both the use and dissemination of malicious software as well as its development is a criminally punishable act. Over the past years, the overall number of such crimes has remained stable. In 2013, a total of 1,799 offenses related to the illegal access of computer data were uncovered, while in 2018 that figure came to 1,240. Some 764 crimes linked to the use and spread of malicious computer programs were recorded in 2013, whereas last year the figure totaled 592 cases.