November 14, 2024

Data Leaks Reach Record High in Russia


Data Leaks Reach Record High in Russia
Server room of BalticServers
BalticServers, Wikimedia Commons
 

Sberbank, a majority state-owned banking and financial services company, reported that around 3.5 billion data entries containing personal information of Russian citizens are accessible to the public, affecting nearly 90% of the country’s adult population.

“The situation has long been deplorable,” said Stanislav Kuznetsov, deputy chairman of Sberbank’s board.

Sberbank’s analysis, conducted in late 2023 and early 2024, found that online stores and medical institutions were the primary sources of data leaks. Data breaches peaked in 2023, but leaks continue.

Infowatch, an information security firm, previously reported that a significant quantity of Russian personal data has been exposed. According to the organization, nearly one-third of data breaches in Russia involve large databases containing more than 100,000 records. Many of these databases are associated with various services. In particular, users of the online food ordering platform Yandex.Eda and shipping company SDEK were among those in recent leaks. Government databases have also been compromised: in August 2024, it was reported that the FSB Border Service database, containing information on individuals who crossed Russia’s border from 2014 to 2023, had been leaked.

Leaked data typically includes full names, passport details, phone numbers, residential addresses, and email addresses. Attackers commonly exploit such information for phishing scams and other fraudulent activities, often employing social engineering tactics. As such, an increase in leaks has meant a concurrent increase in scams.

The Bank of Russia reported that, in the second quarter of 2024, fraudsters stole R4.7 billion (nearly $48 million) from bank clients through 257,000 unauthorized transactions.

In 2024, Sberbank recorded a significant increase in fraudulent calls to Russian citizens. “Around February and March, we recorded a peak in phone scams, with about 20 million daily attempts to contact Russian citizens,” Kuznetsov said. He estimated that damages from fraud at the end of 2024 could reach approximately R1 trillion (roughly $10 billion).

You Might Also Like

Cryptocrime and Punishment
  • October 17, 2024

Cryptocrime and Punishment

A Moscow investigator has been sentenced for receiving the largest bribe in modern Russian history. 
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955