Vadim Vinogradov, head of the legislative working group in the field of Internet technologies and digitization of the Civil Chamber of the Russian Federation, told socialbites.ca that the tightening of legislation on personal data is a necessary measure today. According to the expert, the leakage of personal data is a serious problem that is gaining momentum from year to year and needs to be addressed.
Vadim Vinogradov believes that stricter legislation on personal data should increase companies’ responsibility for the collection, storage and processing of users’ personal data. According to him, the introduction of turnover penalties will force companies to rethink investing in more reliable systems to protect their customers’ personal data.
“Now we’re sadly still in a situation where paying fines is cheaper than investing in security,” he says, “and the dreaded statistics of fake Russian leaks are a prime example of that.”
Vinogradov states that according to recent research, the number of personal data leaks in Russia has tripled during the year.
The expert believes that with the development of information technology, hackers have new tools, methods for attacks and companies should be ready to repel such threats.
“The responsibility lies partly on the people themselves, as the data was leaked not only from large companies, but also due to the careless use of various questionable apps,” adds Vinogradov.
The expert underlines that malicious software that steals information about users may have been encountered before. However, the risk has increased since citizens began to actively use VPN services.
“Many of these apps do not guarantee security and are popular with all kinds of scammers who actively attack these services or disguise malware as these apps,” says a representative of the Russian Federation’s Civil Service.
For 2022, the number of “leaked” records regarding personal data and payment information in Russia increased by 2.67 times compared to the previous year, exceeding 667 million, to witness Data from InfoWatch Group’s “Russia: Restricted Access Information Leaks in 2022” study.
Thus, experts state that the number of records seized last year exceeded the country’s population by more than 4.5 times.