In the first half of 2024, the share of Russian ads was about 10%.
Russia has taken first place in the world in the number of advertisements for the sale of company databases on dark web platforms. According to Positive Technologies, in the first half of 2024, the share of Russian advertisements was about 10%. The top five “leaders” also included the United States (8%), India (7%), China (6%) and Indonesia (4%). We are talking about databases containing personal information of users and commercial secrets.
It is interesting that 88% of sellers are ready to transfer databases of Russian companies for free. The share of free offers is also high (more than 70%) in the case of databases of Latin American countries, the USA, India and Indonesia. Experts attribute this trend to the fact that hackers often do not aim to make a profit, but to cause maximum damage. In addition, cybercriminals demonstrate their capabilities and earn a reputation in the criminal community.
As Positive Technologies notes, Russia’s leadership is due to the unprecedented number of attacks on IT assets, motivated not by financial gain, but by the desire to cause damage. The company records a continuous increase in the number of hacker groups attacking Russian organizations.
T.Hunter attributes the problem of data leaks in Russia to the insufficient level of cybersecurity and the high activity of hackers, caused by geopolitics. Cybercriminals attack both government systems and private companies. T.Hunter also notes that the number of organizations that have experienced a data leak for the first time has increased by 15%.
According to FACCT (former Group IB), 150 databases of Russian companies were published in the public domain in the first half of 2024, 30% of which are related to online trade. The total number of lines in leaks during this period was 200.5 million, compared to 397 million in 2023, 1.4 billion in 2022, and 33 million in 2021. In most cases, the databases contain full names, addresses, dates of birth, passwords, passport details, phone numbers, and other sensitive information.
