Russian Cybercrime Surged 25x in 5 Years, Says Local AG

Igor Krasnov, Russia’s new Attorney General, says that cybercrime in Russia has surged 25 times over the past five years. Krasnov made the statement during a recent meeting devoted to fighting cybercrime in Russia, according to an official statement on July 17.

Only 25% of cybercrime in Russia gets solved

At the event, Krasnov outlined that there have already been 225,000 cases in the first half of 2020, a 92% increase in the same timeframe from 2019. The total number of Russian cases for all of last year was just 294,000, Krasnov said.

He cited a number of crimes, like drug trafficking, corruption, and terrorism financing, as often facilited via cryptocurrencies and data encryption tools that maximize anonymity. The conviction rate of such crimes amounts to just 25% to date, Krasnov added.

The Attorney General suggested creating an automated system for tracking cybercrime online, as well as “radically change the existing approaches to police operations and preliminary investigations” of such cases.

While the Russian Attorney General has voiced the need to develop more tools for fighting crypto-related cybercrime, the status of crypto itself is not yet clear in the country.

Despite multiple warnings to ban or criminalize cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, the legal status of Russian crypto remains unclear to date. In June 2020, a Russian court denied a motion to provide restitution to a victim, arguing that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have no legal status.