Shadow Market for Russian Personal Data Sees Prices Surge

The Data Leakage & Breach Intelligence (DLBI) project, which runs the Telegram channel “Information Leaks,” has released its annual review of the black market for “probiv”—the illicit access to personal data of Russian citizens. This year’s report covers the developments in 2023.

According to DLBI, “probiv” refers to the provision (or sale) of information about a specific person (or company) from an organization’s database, typically in real time, by an insider with authorized access. The main suppliers in this market are intermediaries who work directly with insiders in organizations and advertise their services on underground platforms.

Currently, more than 80 intermediaries are actively engaged in “probiv” across various shadow marketplaces. The total number of active intermediaries has remained almost unchanged, as has the number of those specializing in “bank probiv.”

Growth in Government and Mobile Data Requests

The number of intermediaries offering “government probiv” increased by 22%, while those providing “mobile probiv” rose by 17%.

Price Trends in the Shadow Market

The following trends were observed in the median prices for the three main types of “probiv”: banks, mobile operators, and government agencies:

• On average, “government probiv” is almost eight times cheaper than “bank probiv.” However, compared to 2022, prices for “government probiv” have increased 2.5 times.
• In addition to data from the traffic police (GIBDD), this category includes information on a person’s movements from “Rozysk-Magistral” and data on all issued passports from the “Russian Passport” system. The price for such data has risen by 40% year-over-year, but remains the lowest at around 2,000 rubles per request.
• The price for “probiv” of mobile operator subscribers has increased 3.3 times compared to last year. “Mobile probiv” is now 2.3 times more expensive than “bank probiv.”
• According to DLBI, “Prices for bank client probiv, after stagnating in 2022, have increased by 51%.”

Access to banking data remains “the most unstable service on the black market,” explains DLBI founder Ashot Oganesyan. “For most small banks, ‘probiv’ is either unavailable or extremely difficult to find,” he notes. However, for major banks like Sberbank, about ten intermediaries offer the service at around 40,000 rubles.

Data Leaks vs. Shadow Market Services

In theory, data leaks could compete with “probiv” services. According to Roskomnadzor, there were 168 mass data leaks in 2023, exposing over 300 million records about Russian citizens. However, experts at F.A.C.C.T. believe that even with the continued rise in leaks, “probiv” prices are unlikely to drop. As a cybersecurity market insider explains, customers seeking “probiv” are interested in information from closed sources, not data that can be obtained quickly and cheaply from public leaks.