In Russia, cases of fraud in instant messengers are on the rise, with attackers sending links to phishing sites and malicious programs disguised as ordinary ones. Alexander Khinshtein, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications, has highlighted the need to strengthen measures to combat this problem.
In a recent post on his telegram channel on July 10, Khinshtein expressed concern about the increasing number of such attacks, which have doubled or even tripled since the beginning of the year.
“After the adoption of our bills on blocking calls and SMS messages from foreign numbers, as well as imposing administrative responsibility on communication operators for allowing such numbers, the number of fraudulent calls has significantly decreased. As a result, attackers have turned to messengers and had to find new ways,” said Khinshtein.
The politician also pointed out that a new form of cyber abuse has emerged in Russia, with hackers launching mass attacks on messenger users. He called for exploring additional methods to combat fraud in messenger platforms.
In June, Senator Artem Sheikin proposed that regional operators be obliged to join existing systems for checking numbers in order to combat fraud.
At that time, the number of attempted phone fraud cases peaked at 8.6 million per day, with spoofed numbers being used in most cases. Sheikin stated that only four federal telecom operators currently have their own blocking systems and will connect to the Antifraud state program by 2024. However, regional companies lack verification systems.
It is hoped that these new measures will effectively reduce the activity of attackers and enhance the public’s confidence in communication operators.