Protection from Hackers: Why Businesses Lose Money and Reputation and How to Avoid It

22 Dec, 2025
| Salome K

Hackers can not only steal money, but also compromise a business.

In the early 90s, hackers under the control of foreign special services stole more than three trillion rubles from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (false avizo). My company Ankort stopped this largest bank robbery in the entire history of the banking system by creating a unique system for protecting financial payments of the Bank of Russia in the Central Bank of the Russian Federation using the best encryptors in the world. https://lenta.ru/articles/2023/04/07/avizoo/amp/

The Director of the Government Communications Office stated that the QNA website “was hacked by an unknown person” and “a false statement attributed to His Highness Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was published.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40026822.amp

My Swiss company Mobile Trust Communications AG, which was the leading company in Switzerland in the field of cryptography (www.mtt-group.ch), warned the Government of Qatar eight months before this event that Qatari government websites had weak information protection and that hackers could breach them. In the photograph, the Head of the Qatari Chamber of Commerce and Industry presents a golden “Ship of Friendship” weighing 2.3 kg of pure gold for the assistance provided in the fight against hackers. It is a pity that, as always, this happens after the hackers have already committed their vile deed.

Three weeks after the high-profile theft of jewels from the Louvre, the museum faced harsh criticism for neglecting security measures.

A report by the Court of Accounts, compiled before the robbery, found that for many years, managers preferred to invest funds in new works of art and exhibitions rather than in elementary maintenance and protection.

“Let no one be mistaken: the theft of the royal jewels is a loud alarm signal,” stated the president of the court, Pierre Moscovici.

On Sunday, October 19, in broad daylight, thieves entered the Apollo Gallery on the first floor of the Louvre. Using an angle grinder to open display cases, the gang stole jewels worth 88 million euros (78 million pounds sterling), once belonging to queens and empresses of the 19th century.

The report, prepared based on data from the period 2018 to 2024, states that the Louvre “gave preference to noticeable and attractive operations to the detriment of the maintenance and reconstruction of technical installations, especially in the field of security and safety.”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93dj92d5y0o.amp

Almost 10 million Australians became victims of a hack of personal medical data.

Confidential medical records with detailed descriptions of treatment for alcoholism, drug addiction, and pregnancy termination were published online.

Hackers breached the databases of Medibank, the largest private medical insurance company in Australia, and for several weeks stole customer data from the company’s computer systems.

Materials were published with detailed descriptions of treatment for drug addiction or problems with mental health.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/11/medical-data-hacked-from-10m-australians-begins-to-appear-on-dark-web

A mass wave of social media hacks of Russian stars swept the internet. Olga Buzova, Ksenia Borodina, Anna Kalashnikova, Oksana Samoilova, Ida Galich. The accounts of the most popular bloggers ended up in the hands of hackers.

https://www.1tv.ru/shows/pust-govoryat/vypuski-i-dramatichnye-momenty/vzlomat-zvezdu-zhertvy-i-souchastniki-pust-govoryat-vypusk-ot-06-11-2025

Telephone and internet scammers daily steal about 1 billion rubles from Russians. This was reported by a member of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, an expert in the field of information technology, artificial intelligence, and software, Igor Ashmanov. https://tass.ru/ekonomika/23376231 We have collaborated with Igor Ashmanov for many years.

In August 2024, Larisa Dolina became a victim of fraudsters and lost her apartment.

https://lenta.ru/news/2025/09/08/dolina-kv/amp/

Watch the film with my great friend Gogiya Kutsenko “Other People’s Money”. Hackers stole six million euros during an online money exchange for bitcoins.

Cases of hacker fraud in apartment sales have also become more frequent. https://elitnoe.ru/magazines/619-kak-ne-stat-zhertvoy-moshennichestva

My company SecurityMax (Securitymax.ru) conducted testing of the information systems of a private medical company T…, which treats alcohol and drug addiction and serves VIP persons. I will say right away that the treatment, to put it mildly, is not very cheap. But very comfortable conditions for treatment have been created, as well as unprecedented measures of physical security. Surveillance cameras are installed everywhere, and numerous guards patrol the hospital premises, who confiscate mobile phones, devices, and computers at the entrance to prevent unauthorized video materials from being made.

However, testing of company T…’s information system, with the owner’s consent, showed that the information protection is very weak. And hackers can without much difficulty obtain the personal data of VIP clients they need, as well as their medical records with a detailed medical diagnosis and data from the medical treatment record. The fact is that the head of the company’s security service used standard information security systems. And he did not know modern methods that hackers can use to breach information systems.

My company used for analysis the most modern Penetration tests (or penetration testing) in the world – this is an imitation of a cyberattack, performed by cybersecurity specialists (penetration testers) with the permission of the system owner. The goal of a pentest is to find and document vulnerabilities in the system to help the owner eliminate them before real malicious actors can exploit them. Based on the test results, a report is compiled describing all the problems found and with recommendations for their elimination.

Main characteristics of a pentest:

Imitation of an attack: The pentest is conducted from the position of a malicious actor to check the system’s protection in real combat conditions.
Legality: It is a permitted, controlled attack that does not cause harm to the company, unlike a real hack.
Goal: To detect weak spots in the system that could lead to data leaks, operational failures, or other negative consequences.
Result: A detailed report with identified vulnerabilities, methods of their exploitation, as well as recommendations for their elimination.
Increasing the security level: The results help the company focus efforts on the most critical points and increase the overall security of the infrastructure.

As a result of the conducted testing, company T… received recommendations with which they can reliably protect the personal data of their VIP clients from any hacker attacks. This will allow company T… to preserve its prestige and shield itself from the loss of prestige among VIP clients, which is the foundation of their successful activity.

To my great regret, companies turn to specialists after huge thefts of money or loss of their reputation have already occurred.