Every day, Russian Internet users make about 2 million attempts to navigate to phishing sites, and 83% of them are on smartphones. In the first 10 months of 2024, Yandex Browser prevented more than 437 million such transitions thanks to a built-in neural network that analyzes sites in real time for the presence of malicious content. However, the growing complexity of cyber threats points to the need to further improve cybersecurity technologies.
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According to Yandex Browser statistics, over the period from January to October 2024, over 437 million attempts by users to switch to phishing resources were blocked. This impressive result was made possible thanks to the introduction of a built-in neural network into the browser, which promptly checks each page visited, comparing it with a regularly updated service database. This database contains more than 600,000 phishing and other dangerous sites.
Most often, Russians switched to websites with trash news (32%), fake investment platforms (20%) and resources imitating popular instant messengers and social networks (12%). Fraudsters create exact copies of well-known websites by changing only one letter or symbol in the resource address, which makes the fake almost indistinguishable from the original for an inattentive Internet user.
Most often, attackers create fake websites that imitate offers of goods and services, fundraising, profitable investments, as well as platforms for participating in lotteries and sweepstakes. Particularly popular among scammers are pages containing false information about compensation for the population, and dating sites where users are asked to pay for non-existent subscriptions or services. Thus, attackers gain access to users’ personal data, their banking information and social network accounts in order to further blackmail the victim or issue loans.
Since the beginning of 2024, Roskomnadzor, based on court decisions and requirements of the Prosecutor General’s Office, has removed or blocked more than 58,000 phishing sites. For comparison: in 2023, 43,100 resources were blocked, in 2022 – 13,800, and in 2021 – only 3,100. This explosive growth in the number of blockings is due to the active use of the Anti-Phishing program launched by the Ministry of Digital Development in June 2022. During its work, about 215,000 malicious resources were blocked, among which the same fake investment sites, online stores, banking resources, social networks and instant messengers, online booking services, as well as fake websites of government agencies predominated.
The sophistication of cyber attacks is not limited only by the imagination of attackers. Modern technologies, including AI, are actively used by cybercriminals to increase the efficiency of their criminal actions. One of the most alarming trends is deepfake phishing, where scammers create fake audio and video materials that imitate the voices and images of the victim’s trusted representatives. This allows them to fraudulently gain access to confidential information and financial resources of Internet users.
Mobile devices of Russians are becoming the main target of phishing attacks. Scam sites are optimized for smartphones and tablets, and when opened on a computer, their interface is often distorted and images and shapes are misaligned. Attackers actively use advertising inside mobile applications – from games to file viewers – to distribute their malicious links.
The economic damage from phishing attacks and other types of online fraud continues to grow steadily. According to Sberbank, in 2024 the losses of the Russian economy could reach 1 trillion rubles, of which 250 billion rubles. accounts for personal data leaks and fraudulent calls. Analysts note that about 3.5 billion records with personal data are in the public domain, affecting approximately 90% of the adult population of Russia. At the same time, only 2% of leaks are associated with credit institutions, which provide a high level of cybersecurity, while the main sources of problems remain online stores, marketplaces and medical institutions.
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