Russian bank Sberbank estimates that economy will lose $44 billion to cybercrime in 2020. Sberbank has held the title of the largest bank in Russia since 2014. From its headquarters in Moscow, the Russian bank said that the shift from transactions to digital payments that followed the outbreak of the global COVID-19has exacerbated security problems in the country.
The ongoing pandemic and its consequences lead the Russian bank to discouraging forecasts for 2021. Sberbank, which currently has about 100 million active customers, predicted that the economic decline from cybercrime could double next year.
Stanislav Kuznetsov, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank, said the following: “On average, we are called upon to deal with 26 billion cybersecurity.”
Speaking to Russia's parliament, the Duma, in March this year, President Vladimir Putincalled for a crackdown on cybercrime. Interior Ministry data published in October revealed that the number of crimes linked to bank cards in Russia increased by 500% in 2020.
That same month, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB)announced that, as part of a joint operation with the Interior Ministry, it had detained more than 30 people in 11 regions of the country, with 25 of them charged with selling stolen data from online fraudsters. Authorities said the individuals had set up more than 90 online stores through which they sold the stolen data.
As Infosecurity Magazine reports, in 2019, Russia’s Interior Minister Alexander Kolokoltsev said that cybercrime in Russia had increased dramatically, while other types of crime had decreased. “Over the past few years, Internet crime has increased 16-fold. This figure is huge, despite the fact that crime in general is declining, including felonies. This is exactly where we can focus and unite our efforts,”Kolokoltsev said at a meeting of the Ministry’s Social Council.
Kolokoltsev also added that the increase in cybercrime could be partly due to a lack of awareness about online scams and “deceptive” schemes targeting vulnerable and unsuspecting citizens of Russia.
