Thu | Mar 3, 2022 | 5:41 AM PST

As Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine and the situation continues to escalate on the ground, things continue to heat up in cyberspace.

The New York Post reports that United States banks are witnessing a significant increase in cyberattacks since NATO and many Western allies imposed financial sanctions on Russia, saying that it seems the country has declared cyberwar on the U.S.

This comes as no surprise to anyone who has been paying close attention to the situation in the last few months, as CISA and the FBI have repeatedly warned all organizations, specifically those in critical infrastructure like banks, to prepare for a wave of Russian cyberattacks.

[RELATED: CISA Warns: 'Shields Up' on Russian Cyber Activity]

Large U.S. banks—like JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs—are always under pressure from cybercriminals who are looking to steal their precious information. Bank executives say they spend billions annually to defend against these kinds of attacks.

But, according to The Post, executives say the recent wave of attacks is noticeably different. The new attacks have been described as a "subtle but intensified assault on banks' technological infrastructure."

While executives declined to comment on the situation, a spokesperson from the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), shared this message:

"We are in close communication with our member firms and relevant authorities around the world to monitor cyber activity against the financial sector. At this time, the sector is not seeing any significant threats attributable to any geographic origin. We continue to actively assess the situation through enhanced monitoring and cross-border threat intelligence sharing across the financial services sector."

While no real breaches have happened yet, one executive told The Post the industry consensus is that the Russian government is behind these attacks.

Original story from The New York Post.

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