Alfa-Bank Launches Its Own Cyberthreat Protection Tool
The service combines automated monitoring with a full expert-led security audit.
Data protection is a top priority for any major bank, prompting financial institutions to continually improve their defenses against outside attacks. Over time, banks and other financial organizations could also become independent providers of cybersecurity solutions.
A Hybrid Approach to Security
Alfa-Bank has launched Alfa-Scanner, a cloud-based service that automatically scans an organization’s external attack surface for vulnerabilities. The tool combines artificial intelligence with expert reviews conducted by the bank’s specialists.
The service analyzes all of a customer’s resources that can be accessed over the internet, including assets the company’s own security team may not even know exist. The range of checks is continually expanding, helping the service address a broad range of current cyberthreats.
“The service was designed to meet the stringent security requirements of banking infrastructure, so the same approaches can be applied to protecting businesses across a range of industries. Attackers are automating vulnerability discovery and increasingly using AI. Alfa-Scanner applies the same approach on the defensive side, helping identify threats at the pace at which attackers’ tools evolve. The vulnerabilities it finds are ranked by severity, allowing specialists to focus first on the most significant risks,” Alfa-Bank’s press service said.
More Than Basic Analytics
The service is built around a hybrid model. AI scans a company’s external attack surface for known categories of cyberthreats, while bank specialists assess the strength of its defenses against more complex and unpredictable attack scenarios. The service recommends ways to close gaps in the company’s information security perimeter and enables specialists to verify that each issue has actually been resolved. Rather than handing the team a mass of raw scan results, it provides a clear action plan.
Notably, the service runs in the cloud, so customers do not need to install hardware or software on their own systems. A dedicated online dashboard provides information about vulnerabilities, recommended fixes and the status of remediation efforts.
Targeting Medium-Sized and Large Businesses
The solution is aimed primarily at medium-sized and large enterprises with complex, distributed IT infrastructure. For these organizations, a basic vulnerability scan is not enough; they need a comprehensive audit conducted by security experts.
For Alfa-Bank, entering this market could also open up a new revenue stream. According to the Center for Strategic Research, Russia’s information security market exceeded 364 billion rubles (about $4.3 billion) in 2025, up 16.1% from 2024. The arrival of cybersecurity services from banks could intensify competition in the sector, particularly in vulnerability monitoring and subscription-based protection services.
New Tools Expand the Market
Russia already has a range of homegrown platforms for scanning for cyberthreats. In August 2023, Positive Technologies released PT Black Box, a tool that uses black-box testing to identify vulnerabilities by simulating the actions of a potential attacker. The product is deployed directly within the customer’s on-premises infrastructure.
In 2023, Angara Security introduced a service that regularly scans corporate internet-facing resources and then has experts review the identified vulnerabilities. Customers receive an online dashboard with details of security issues and tools to track remediation. In many respects, the service was a precursor to Alfa-Scanner.
Alfa-Bank’s new tool could bring significant changes to the cybersecurity market as a whole. If it succeeds commercially, other banks and financial institutions may launch their own solutions. Demand for continuous vulnerability monitoring is likely to grow as cyberthreats increase. According to a study by FinExpertiza, 46,400 Russian organizations experienced information security incidents in 2025. That makes proactive security tools increasingly important for businesses seeking to identify weaknesses before attackers can exploit them.
