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Russian-language cybercrime: 95% of incidents are about stealing money

November 20, 2015

Russian-language cybercrime: 95% of incidents are about stealing money

Woburn, MA – November 19, 2015 - Kaspersky Lab experts in the Computer Incidents Investigation Department (CIID) have spent the last three and a half years investigating more than 330 cybersecurity incidents affecting government and private-sector organizations. Their findings reveal that more than 95 percent of these incidents used malicious software, often successfully, to steal funds. Details of this discovery and other key findings have now been compiled into the Kaspersky Lab report, “The Russian cybercrime underground: How it works.”

The report estimates the damage caused to businesses by Russian-speaking cybercriminals who have been arrested in the last few years. It also includes an overview of products and services offered on the Russian underground market, and explains the structure of a typical Russian cybercrime gang and the main roles of its participants.

The main findings of the report are:

  • Between 2012 and 2015, law enforcement agencies in different countries arrested more than 160 people from Russia and its neighboring countries, all suspected of conducting financial cybercrime around the world.
  • The estimated damage caused by their activity exceeds $790 million dollars. If this is combined with the damage caused by the infamous Carbanak gang (which has not yet been arrested), the amount of stolen money would be more than $1.7 billion dollars.
  •  More than $500 million of this was stolen from countries that were not formerly part of the USSR.
  • Kaspersky Lab experts estimate that during the last three and a half years, nearly 1,000 people from Russia and neighboring countries were involved in cybercriminal activity. Evidence suggests that there are fewer than 20 gang “leaders,” and most of them have yet to be caught.

Currently, Kaspersky Lab is actively investigating five large cybercriminal groups involved in stealing money using malicious software. All five of these groups are still active, and were discovered by Kaspersky Lab researchers in 2012 and 2013. Each group numbers between 10 and 40 people, depending on the group. At least two of the groups are actively targeting organizations in Russia and neighboring countries but also in the United States, Great Britain, Australia, France, Italy and Germany.

“Unlike other local cyber-undergrounds – for example, in Brazil – enterprising Russian-speaking cybercriminals don't just focus on local targets. They are an international problem and we think that the scale of the threat will only continue to grow,” said Ruslan Stoyanov, Director of Computer Incidents Investigation Department at Kaspersky Lab. “With the recent devaluation of the ruble, Russian cybercriminals have a greater incentive to shift their attention away from local targets towards foreign ones where they see an opportunity for greater illicit gains.”

“The only way to fight cybercrime effectively is for law enforcement agencies, IT security experts, and representatives from the financial sector to join forces. Kaspersky Lab's experience tracking and combating the Russian cyber-underground is unparalleled. Our experts detect emerging malicious trends long before they become widespread and we are leveraging this experience to combat the spread of Russian cybercrime worldwide," he continued. 

The full text of the report is available at Securelist.com

About Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky Lab is one of the world’s fastest-growing cybersecurity companies and the largest that is privately-owned. The company is ranked among the world’s top four vendors of security solutions for endpoint users (IDC, 2014). Since 1997 Kaspersky Lab has been an innovator in cybersecurity and provides effective digital security solutions and threat intelligence for large enterprises, SMBs and consumers. Kaspersky Lab is an international company, operating in almost 200 countries and territories across the globe, providing protection for over 400 million users worldwide.

Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.

 

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Media Contact
Sarah Kitsos 
781.503.2615
sarah.kitsos@kaspersky.com

Russian-language cybercrime: 95% of incidents are about stealing money

Russian-language cybercrime: 95% of incidents are about stealing money
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About Kaspersky

Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company founded in 1997. Innovating the industry with a Cyber Immunity approach, Kaspersky safeguards consumers, businesses, critical infrastructure, and governments from cyberthreats, with over a billion devices protected to date.

Kaspersky ensures Cybersecurity True to Business, focusing on providing clear outcomes, protecting revenue, easing workloads and preventing downtime. Kaspersky’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into innovative solutions and services for organizations of every size, from small businesses to large enterprises, combining proven AI-driven protection technologies with simple management and expert support.

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