Mikhail Mishustin: “Measures now in effect have led to a drop in registered digital crimes, something that happened for the first time since July of this year. Over the past 10 months, their over number has declined by 9.5 percent compared with the same period in 2024. But in October, the drop amounted to almost 25 percent compared to last October.”
Mikhail Mishustin’s introductory remarks:
Mikhail Mishustin chairs a strategic session on fighting cyber fraud
Mikhail Mishustin chairs a strategic session on fighting cyber fraud
Mikhail Mishustin chairs a strategic session on fighting cyber fraud
Mikhail Mishustin chairs a strategic session on fighting cyber fraud
Good afternoon, colleagues,
Today, we will discuss in detail what is being done to fight cyber fraud in our country.
The spread of internet services, advanced communications means and digital solutions can certainly give a powerful impetus to the development of many economic sectors and the social sphere and make everyday life much easier. At the same time, it is a source of new challenges. Ill-minded persons tend to misuse information technologies and take advantage of credulous people in an attempt to get access to their client areas and bank accounts and take possession of their property. In simple terms, they steal money and properties.
To minimise the risks for the public, the Government, pursuant to our President’s instructions, is creating a comprehensive system for counteracting digital crime.
We are working in a number of areas, doing this jointly with our colleagues, the State Duma, the Federation Council, law enforcement, and the Bank of Russia.
Our priority is to create conditions for greater protection against e-criminals.
We have introduced labeling for incoming business calls. Now smart phones should identify calling companies and reflect this information on-screen.
It has also been envisioned that government agencies, lending organisations, mobile operators and digital platforms such as marketplaces have no right to inform users or contact clients via foreign messengers. We are creating conditions for people to understand that callers attempting to reach them via these messengers and identifying themselves, for example, as bank clerks, law enforcement officers, or health centre staff cannot be trusted. Even more so, they must not tell them a code that came to their phone or authorisation passwords.
Since August, mobile phone operators have been transmitting text messages, needed to access the Government Services website, only after the telephone conversation has ended. Since this measure’s inception, over 13 million of these text messages have been blocked.
Today, networks prevent all calls from substitute numbers from reaching subscribers.
We continue to expand the range of tools helping people protect themselves and their savings. Almost 800,000 people have signed waivers for getting new SIM cards, and over 20 million people imposed self-bans on consumer loans.
The Government Services website has a separate option for protecting users from online scammers. Over three million people have used it to date for restoring access to the Government Services website (in the event that someone tried to seize their accounts or has already done this). Users also want to know what they should do in such situations.
The business community is also actively fighting cyber-scammers. The banks have installed systems for analysing various transactions; these online systems notify clients about suspicious operations and terminate these operations. Last year, automated anti-fraud systems helped prevent over 27 million operations, conducted without clients’ voluntary consent; this is almost 100 percent more on 2024.
Mobile phone operators analyse telephone traffic for blocking fraudulent calls in the real-time mode.
Colleagues,
Since July 2025, our measures have made it possible to reduce the number of registered digital crimes. In the past ten months, their number has diminished by 9.5 percent on the same period of 2024. The number of such crimes has fallen by almost 25 percent this past October, on October 2024.
It is very important to continue this work.
It is necessary to protect people in the most effective way. At the same time, we should see to it that technologies are used to ensure their safety, and that they are not used against them.
We are currently drafting another legislative package, mentioned by the President last week.
The planned measures will make it possible to combat and investigate digital crimes more quickly, and they will also help prevent scamming incidents.
As instructed by the President, we are establishing the Anti-Fraud integral state information system that will facilitate cooperation between banks, mobile phone operators, digital platforms and law enforcement agencies.
We should already
start adopting new decisions in order to create a large-scale and effective
anti-scamming system.
