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

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
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. 
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
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.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 

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