Exclusive: Russian Central Bank Shuts Down TeleTrade.ru Website

Just a couple of weeks after the official start of the regulated retail Forex Forex Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest tradi Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest tradi Read this Term market in Russia, the Bank of Russia is flexing its muscles. Finance Magnates can confirm that the mega-regulator has exercised an unprecedented amount of power and closed down one of the websites of TeleTrade.

TeleTrade.ru was shut down abruptly, a move which the company at first wrongly attributed to a DDoS Attack DDoS Attack A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is defined as an attempt by malicious actor to overwhelm a targeted server, website, or network with a flood of internet traffic. Most often this takes the shape of a machine or network becoming unavailable to users for a period of time through the systematic disruption services of a host connected to the Internet.These attacks are most effective when multiple compromised computer systems and other internet-connected devices are exploited as sources A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is defined as an attempt by malicious actor to overwhelm a targeted server, website, or network with a flood of internet traffic. Most often this takes the shape of a machine or network becoming unavailable to users for a period of time through the systematic disruption services of a host connected to the Internet.These attacks are most effective when multiple compromised computer systems and other internet-connected devices are exploited as sources Read this Term.

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The justification for the move by the Bank of Russia is phishing. The website had been down for several days before the actual reason for the shutdown surfaced.

Commenting to Finance Magnates exclusively, the VP of TeleTrade, Dmitrii Dragaylo, said: “The disruption of the service of TeleTrade.ru has not materially affected the company. Our main operational website on the territory of Russia is teletrade-group.ru. It is fully functional and a redirect to it has been setup from teletrade.ru.

We are flabbergasted by the central bank's move and the way in which the regulator had shut down the website. We haven’t received any official documents from the Bank of Russia and we were wondering what is affecting the performance of the site."

The company expresses hope that the mega-regulator will be quick to block access to foreign brokers that are offering their services in Russia without a license. This will ensure a fair competitive space for participants in the regulated retail forex market in Russia.

New Department of Central Bank Behind the Move

The newly created Department of Counteraction to Fraudulent Practices of the Bank of Russia was quick to dismiss teletrade.ru as a website that is using phishing to impersonate teletrade-group.ru. Therefore the regulator blocked the website operated by the unlicensed forex broker, and left access to the local domain open.

Last week Artyom Sytchev, deputy governor of safety and information protection at the Bank of Russia, said that the regulator has the power to block phishing websites across several domains, including .ru, .su and .рф.

Sytchin outlined at the time: “We still can’t block access to websites which are hosted outside of Russian domains. The capability to block phishing websites and brokers that are not officially licensed would be in the interest of clients.”

“If a brokerage outside of Russia is providing services in the country which require authorization, access to its website should be limited,” Sytchin elaborated.

The newly created department lost no time putting words into action after being created in April this year. Showing its resolve when it has to take action, the regulator of the Russian forex market is surprisingly active in the first weeks of the official regulated market's operation.