Sign In
By signing in or creating an account, you agree with Associated Broadcasting Company's Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
By signing in or creating an account, you agree with Associated Broadcasting Company's Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
New Delhi: In recent years, Karnataka has officially lost more than Rs 5,474 crore to cyber fraud. Across India, thousands of people become victims of online fraud, phishing, fake links, OTP, or UPI fraud every day. One thing that has repeatedly come to light is that many major cyber criminal networks operate from Russia or countries where people speak Russian.
University of Oxford Associate Professor Jonathan Lusthaus and Dr. Miranda Bruce jointly published a report last year after conducting research, in which Russia has been described as the world's leading cyber fraudster, with Ukraine in the second rank, China in third, and the United States in the fourth position, with India ranked in the 10th position. While countries are marked in this ranking, it does not necessarily mean that they are involved in this crime. This crime involves the country's land and its organized criminal gangs.
This begs the question: Why Russia? Why not technological superpowers like China and the US? When reports mention Russian cybercrime, it does not only mean Russia but also Russian-speaking hacker gangs spread across countries like Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. These gangs are involved in many types of crimes, including ransomware, card cloning and banking fraud, phishing websites and fake apps, cryptocurrency theft and money laundering, and fraud through calls, SMS, emails, and social media globally. The tools, malware, or servers used in many major digital frauds in India are found to be linked to this Russian-speaking underground.
After the Cold War, Russia's economic conditions weakened, government jobs decreased, but not IT skills. The result was that many talented programmers and engineers were faced with the choice of either low-paying legitimate jobs or turning to illegal cyber activities for quick money. This combination of talent and economic pressure became fertile ground for cybercrime. Russia-linked gangs have virtually transformed cybercrime into a service industry.
Criminals in China focus more on cyber espionage, industrial secrets, intellectual property, defense, and government information. Cybercrime gangs exist in the US as well, but laws are strictly enforced, and government agencies take regular action.
The Russia-linked gangs even sell ready-made ransomware kits and rent phishing panels, SMS spoofing, and call spoofing tools. When local gangs in a country like India commit UPI or banking fraud, the software, malware, or servers they use may be sourced from Russia or the Russian-speaking underground. In recent years, such networks have been busted in the NCR.
