Since the beginning of 2024, Russia’s communications watchdog Roskomnadzor has recorded 19 data breaches, resulting in the theft of 510 million records containing the personal information of Russian citizens. The news was reported by TASS, citing Roskomnadzor’s press service.
“Since the start of 2024, Roskomnadzor has identified 19 instances of data breaches, with over 510 million records leaked online,” TASS quoted the department’s press service as saying. To put this in perspective, throughout 2023, Roskomnadzor identified 168 data breaches, but these incidents only resulted in the leakage of 300 million records of Russians’ information. In 2022, the department recorded over 140 breaches, affecting 600 million records of Russians.
In December of the previous year, two bills were introduced to the State Duma proposing stricter penalties for companies that allow data breaches. One of them suggests implementing turnover fines, which would be calculated based on the company’s income over a certain period. Currently, the maximum penalty for such an incident is 300,000 rubles. The proposed legislation suggests raising this maximum to 500 million rubles, as well as introducing fines of up to 200,000 rubles for individuals and up to 1 million rubles for officials. The second bill creates criminal liability for such incidents, with punishments up to four years deprivation of liberty.
