Report: IS hacked 600 Russian websites

MOSCOW, March 25 (UPI) -- Islamic State hackers attacked 600 Russian Internet sites in 2014, a security firm reported Wednesday, an example of a growing IS threat to Russia.

"Some banks, companies in the construction sphere, plants, state enterprises and even schools and scientific centers have already become the victims of successful attacks," a report by the New York-based Global Cyber Security Co., also known as Group-IB, said. It added the "Cyber Caliphate," a hacker group connected to IS compromises of accounts of the U.S. Central Command, Twitter and YouTube in early 2015, is responsible.

Last week Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested the United Nations conduct an analysis of all IS threats in the Middle East and North Africa, noting Russia is "rendering all-round assistance to Iraq in the provision and strengthening of its defense capability against threats coming from IS." Russia is also involved in helping neighboring Turkmenistan in securing its border with Afghanistan from militants.

Taliban and, some claim, IS forces are massing on Afghanistan's northern border for possible incursions into officially neutral Turkmenistan, formerly a part of the Soviet Union. Russian military instructors were sent to the border, the publication Chronicles of Turkmenistan reported Wednesday.