Personal data of 90% of adult Russians is publicly available due to leaks, says top banker Novaya Gazeta Europe

The personal information of around 90% of all adult Russian citizens has become publicly available due to mass data leaks, the state business newspaper RBC reported on Wednesday, citing comments from the deputy chairman of Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank.

Speaking at a security conference in Moscow, Stanislav Kuznetsov said the situation surrounding the sharing of personal data looked “deplorable for a long time”, adding that “unfortunately, around 90% of the adult population already has some personal data in the public domain”. ”

Sberbank’s analysis found that the main sources of personal data disclosure were online stores and medical institutions, while the share of disclosures from credit institutions – which are often considered the main source of leaks – was no more than 2%, according to Kuznetsov.

Last year saw the largest amount of personal data become publicly available, with slightly fewer leaks expected in 2024, Kuznetsov said. However, he added that Sberbank had been made aware of a record number of fraudulent calls to Russian citizens in 2024.

“Sometime between February and March we saw a peak in phone calls. In total, there were around 20 million call attempts to Russian citizens per day. “There has never been such an increase in telephone fraud,” Kuznetsov said.