On Friday, the Russian Stock Exchange was attacked with trading suspended, due to a virus attack on its computer systems. Moscow's Russian Trading System (RTS) stock exchange was taken down by malware that got in through a test trading system from the internet, which then started generating huge volumes of parasitic traffic, overloading the RTS's support routers.
"While all the world was in a frenzy over the damp squib that was Nyxem, this attack infiltrated the RTS and could have potentially given hackers access to their systems," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "A virus which can disrupt a stock exchange can have obvious financial consequences, as well as harm the important credibility of an institution in the public's eye, and this should act as a wake-up call for any business which is not taking the virus threat seriously."