Revealed threat: another cyber defense system for citizens will appear in the Russian Federation

Another cyber threat and fraud protection service will be launched in Russia. Rostelecom, a new major player, is entering the domestic cybersecurity market. The system will allow private users to immediately eliminate all risks associated with mobile fraud, from forcibly blocking access to certain sites and resources to antispam, ad blockers, etc. Banks and mobile operators already have similar systems, but not all of them provide a full range of protection and are often addressed only to their customers, experts say.

Cyber Threat and fraud Protection Service

By the end of 2025, Rostelecom, represented by its member Solar Group, will enter the cybersecurity market for individuals for the first time. Vladimir Bengin, the company's Director of Product Development, told Izvestia about this at the Digital Industry of Industrial Russia (CIPR) forum in Nizhny Novgorod.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Korotaev

According to him, the first step in the project was taken last year, when t2 (as well as Solar, belongs to Rostelecom) A leak monitoring feature has been added: subscribers can find out if any of their data has been stolen, and the service has already been used more than 2.5 million times.

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Retail, logistics and telecom were under attack.

The next step will be to launch a comprehensive product to solve many problems with cybersecurity and mobile fraud. In particular, the new service will have the function of both forcibly blocking access to certain sites (for example, parents will be able to close them for children) and restricting access to resources by qualified information security experts as fraudulent. The developers have also provided an anti-spam function, an ad blocker, and other features. Some companies have already expressed interest in connecting the service, said Vladimir Bengin, without specifying their names.

Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Finance.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Alexander Kazakov

— There is a great demand from society and the state to protect ordinary citizens from fraud and cybercrime. It is possible that the new service will also integrate already developed solutions from other companies — it would be unwise to create from scratch what has already been created. Such developments would cost billions of rubles. Attracting third—party partners would give an impetus to the development of the information security market in the Russian Federation, which is currently experiencing a slowdown," believes Igor Bederov, Director of the T.Hunter Investigations Department.

What protection systems do mobile operators have?

Now operators, as well as banks, offer their customers cyber-protection tools in one form or another.

—We have implemented a set of solutions that allowed us to reduce the number of fraudulent calls, for example, we have connected to a Unified Call Verification System, and also added a number of new functions to the Defender service," MTS told Izvestia.

Now it has such features as warning subscribers with voice notifications about potential fraud during a conversation, informing users about possible leaks of their personal data from third parties and attempts to apply for a loan for a subscriber, identifying the caller's number, including from messengers, displaying the source of the call, and others, the company lists. Also in 2024, MTS launched a security solution on the Membrana network and a child protection service using artificial intelligence.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Korotaev

Beeline has its own platform to protect its customers from fraud, spam and cybercrime, the company told Izvestia. It protects both corporate clients and private users. The Label service has appeared, which marks calls and shows users who is calling them at a given time.

— A "Virtual assistant" has been created, it allows you to warn everyone, including owners of push-button phones, about spammers and scammers on the device screen, automatically block them by the client's decision, and the built-in "secretary" can talk to any caller and send a recording of the conversation to the client. In addition, the service allows you to protect against unwanted calls even in messengers," the operator's press service said.

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Denis Kuskov, CEO of TelecomDaily, believes that the new set of cybersecurity tools will be of interest to small telecom operators, banks and digital companies that do not have their own powerful development departments, and their customers. Large operators and credit organizations are currently developing their products in the field of information security, and these services are progressing, so it is difficult to judge what and to what extent they will purchase from Rostelecom structures, the expert noted.

Photo: RIA Novosti/Pavel Bednyakov

— While these developments are being conducted separately from each other, one company may have a specific set of services, for example, detecting fraudulent calls and interrupting them, while another does not. Therefore, the emergence of a single platform with common standards based on a state operator can improve the situation," Denis Kuskov points out.

The entry of a major player into the cybersecurity market for individuals is an important event: This will increase competition in this segment and force other players to actively develop and develop protection tools against hackers and fraudsters, and make the lives of numerous users safer, concluded Eldar Murtazin, a leading analyst at Mobile Research Group.