23 April 2021 – RIA Novosti
Cyberfraud will soon become the dominant type of crime in Russia if its growth is not stopped, Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov stated on Friday at a meeting of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly.
According to Krasnov, the ‘threatening’ trend takes the following form: last year, the number of digital crimes using information and communication technologies increased by 74%, from 294 thousand to 510 thousand.
This figure includes hacker attacks on various institutions, deception of individuals via the Internet and by phone and the like.
‘If this process is not stopped, cybercrime will soon become dominant in the structure of crime (today it reaches already 25%). The personal data of bank depositors is leaking, the possibility of using calls from fake numbers by attackers is not technically suppressed, operational services are not working properly,’ Krasnov stressed.
All this, according to him, ‘generates impunity and, as a result, provokes further criminal activity.’
Earlier, President of the International Police Association Russian Section (IPA RS) Yury Zhdanov told RIA Novosti that last year in Russia the number of leaks in the financial sector increased from 52 to 71 cases (an increase of 36.5%). 13.4 million user data records fell into the hands of hackers.
In the same year, 202 leaks of confidential information from banks, financial and insurance companies were discovered worldwide. This led to the compromise of 486 million records of personal data and payment information.
Russia’s share of global leaks, Zhdanov noted, was 35%.