Prowler bots have started buying up Russians' data en masse

At least 37 data leaks occurred in 2025, the DLBI vulnerability and data leak intelligence service told Izvestia. Their total volume amounted to 21.5 million unique phone numbers and 17 million e-mail addresses.

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By the number of leaks the segment of logistics companies is leading, the second and third places in Q1 2025 were occupied by information (4.5%) and entertainment resources (3%), while in Q1 2024 this place was occupied by online stores (12%) and marketing services (5%).

As noted by DLBI founder Ashot Oganesyan, at first glance the statistics shows an improvement in the situation, but the analysis of the leaks of the last year shows that a significant part of them began to appear on sale or in the public domain with a great delay, and over the next three to six months the volume of leaks that occurred in the first quarter of 2024 increased two to three times.

At the same time, the main reason for the change in the situation on the black market of data, according to him, was the agitated demand for new leaks from the owners of probe bots, which since the end of last year have been buying up on exclusive terms almost all the data appearing on the black market to enrich the bases used in these bots.

"Today, darknet forums are full of "buy new bases on exclusive" ads, and the offered prices reach thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars," he said.

Read more in the exclusive material "Izvestia":

Knowledge leaked: almost 50 major data leaks have occurred since the beginning of the year