CYBER CRIME HAS COST RUSSIA US$49B IN 2020, SBERBANK SAYS

Cyber attacks have cost Russian companies and citizens up to 3.6 trillion rubles (US$49 billion) this year, the country’s largest lender Sberbank said. Russia has encouraged its citizens to switch to bank cards and limit cash use to try to crack down on the shadow economy, but the number of crimes linked to bank cards has shot up by 500 per cent this year, the interior ministry has estimated.

Stanislav Kuznetsov, who oversees security and services, told Reuters private business and ordinary Russians were the main targets of cyber attacks. “The private sector is the most vulnerable: everything from the clients’ accounts to financial data and tender documents are targeted: there are 2.3 million darknet accounts operating in Russian and offering the stolen data,” he said.