A substantial portion of Russian businesses has been found to be critically susceptible to cyberattacks. This conclusion stems from the “Unacceptable Event 2025: Digital Crash Test of Russian Business” study, conducted by Kiberispytanie, a company within the Cyberus fund. The findings indicate that their cybersecurity posture leaves much to be desired.
The cyber resilience tests involved 74 organizations across nine sectors of the Russian economy, including IT, trade, scientific research, consulting, manufacturing, finance, and insurance. All assessments were carried out in an expedited format, giving ethical hackers three months to execute scenarios that could potentially halt a company`s operations.
Remarkably, over half of the simulated attacks—specifically 67 percent—were successfully carried out in less than 24 hours. These intrusions did not even require a high level of expertise from the researchers. The quickest successful penetration was achieved in just 34 minutes.
More than 1,500 specialists participated in these cyber assessments, with 26 of them receiving monetary rewards for the vulnerabilities they identified. The highest payout for a single researcher amounted to 5.6 million rubles, while the average reward was 700,000 rubles, and the minimum stood at 300,000 rubles.
Previously, the alleged perpetrators behind a large-scale cyberattack on Russia were identified. According to Russian hacktivists, the pro-Ukrainian group Hacken is responsible for this incident.
Clement Ashworth 
Barnaby Whitfield