He's concerned that Russia's adversaries are trying to steal classified information

Feb 15, 2013 12:23 GMT  ·  By

In a meeting of the country’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the agency to set up a system that’s capable of detecting, preventing and neutralizing threats from cyberspace.

He demanded that this anti-hacker systems should be developed as soon as possible.

Putin fears that the country's adversaries are after technologies and inventions, political and economic information, and military and defense industry plans, Hindusan Times reports.

“We need the most modern methods for organizing counter-espionage activity, including the protection of secret information. This likewise concerns the increasingly frequent attempts to break into national electronic databases,” the president said.

In addition, he highlighted that immediate measures should also be taken against radicals that used the Internet for their propaganda.

We first heard of this plan at the end of January, shortly after cyber security firm Kaspersky revealed the existence of the massive Red October espionage campaign, which, among many others, also targeted Russia.