Sberbank Warns Russians; Cybercrime Cost the Nation $49bn in 2020

According to Russia’s largest state-owned bank, Sberbank, the total amount the citizens along with the business organizations lost due to cyberattacks this year is up to $49 billion. 

The government has encouraged the citizens to prefer bank cards and lessen the use of cash. This is recommended to stop the illegal financial activities. However, there are crimes that link to bank cards and it has increased up to 500 percent this year according to the interior ministry. 

Sberbank’s deputy chairman, Stanislav Kuznetsov, who is responsible for security and services has talked to Reuters that private businesses and Russian citizens are the main focus of cybercriminals. “The private sector is the most vulnerable: everything from the clients’ accounts to financial data and tender documents is targeted: there are 2.3 million darknet accounts operating in Russian and offering the stolen data.”

Sberbank said that the cybercriminals operate from Germany, Venezuela, Ukraine, and Russia. Sberbank has its own unit to provide protection against cyberattacks for the banks and other financial institutions. 

Cyber crime has cost Russia $49 billion in 2020, Sberbank says https://t.co/mkZuB3DsXe pic.twitter.com/DaqhzxgvF2

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 28, 2020

Banks like Sberbank are more protected from cyberattacks than the other parts of the economy like phone fraud where the client receives a call from an impersonator claiming to be a bank official and steals the individual’s card data. Kuznetsov believes this type of crime has become really common. He has predicted that Russia can lose up to 10 billion roubles alone from this fraud. The Central Bank of Russia has reported more than 5000 unauthorized activities across the bank accounts in the country. They have also reported that more than 6.4 billion roubles have been stolen from the private as well as corporate bank accounts.