April 16, 2025:
Russia continues to have problems with local or foreign hackers committing major crimes. For the last three years there have been massive thefts of billions of dollars from financial institutions and individuals. Local gangsters as well as foreign hackers are responsible for this mayhem. In 2024 the known losses were over $2.2 billion. In 2023 the figure was $1.6 billion. This year appears to be headed towards record losses. Some Russians blame all this on Ukrainian special operations groups. That may be true for some of the thefts, but most are the work of Russian gangsters and foreign hackers.