According to a report released by the Anti-Phishing Working Group, Russia saw a decline in phishing incidents for the 1st quarter of 2014. The number of IP addresses located in the Russian territory, from where fraudulent activities were carried out, decreased considerably and stood at an average of 1.6% in the first quarter of 2014 against 15.3% in the same quarter of 2013.
Obviously, cybercrimes associated with phishing changed their geographical nature, having met strong resistance in Russia. However, Group-IB believes this is a temporary phenomenon and that cybercriminals are preparing to strike again soon. Currently, the USA, Turkey and China are experiencing a surge in phishing incidents.
Analysis of the activities of CERT-GIB for the first half of 2013 and 2014 directly shows that Group-IB knocked down cybercriminals.
For example, in the first half of 2014, experts at CERT-GIB handled 52% fewer requests: 800 requests against 1,537 in the same period of 2013.
Phishing was reduced by 70% – 762 incidents in the first half of 2013 against 235 incidents in the same period of 2014. Thus, the decline in the number of phishing incidents is more than obvious.
The financial sector in Russia is still highly attractive to cybercriminals. The funds within payment systems are growing steadily. Banks are constantly improving their online services, thereby attracting a growing number of users and collecting more personal data, which is wanted by attackers. Group-IB warns against reducing vigilance on information security. That cybercriminals are preparing to strike again is obvious and quite predictable.
It should be noted that the victory in the latest round of the fight against cybercrimes owes much to Group-IB’s expertise, endowed with the Coordination Center for TLD RU, under which phishing, malware and botnet controllers are fought and resisted.
“The Coordination Center has since long ago been paying great attention to the safety of Russian Internet users. That is why our cooperation with Group-IB in the fight against illegal resources, malware and phishing sites is a great way of making the Internet cleaner. I’m glad that this work is paying off and that Internet users can also take part in it. A decline in the number of phishing sites shows that we are moving in the right direction: as recently as last fall, phishing was one of the main challenges and the fight against this cyber evil was set as a priority. I believe that only joint efforts by all who care about the safety and security of the Internet can achieve real and tangible results,”, noted Andrey Kolesnikov, Director of the Coordination Center for TLD RU.
