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- Everything flows, everything is imputed: prices for "punching" data on the black market have doubled
Everything flows, everything is imputed: prices for "punching" data on the black market have doubled
The cost of "punching" data on the black market has doubled, Izvestia found out. The search for personal information about Russians on the darknet is ordered, among other things, to deceive them, as well as blackmail and surveillance. Cybersecurity experts say that about 400,000 people have ordered the services of black informants since the beginning of the year. The prices for their "work" can reach hundreds of thousands of rubles, including due to a decrease in the availability of information. It has become more difficult to distribute them after tougher penalties for illegal data processing. The information about how free chatbots differ from paid ones and how much illegal information collection activities can cost is in the Izvestia article.
How much do bots' data penetration services cost?
Prices on the black market for the "penetration" of personal data have doubled, Izvestia found out. We are talking about the sale of confidential information about a person on the darknet, which is ordered, among other things, for criminal purposes. Among them are surveillance, fraud and blackmail.
Such an increase in prices on the black market is due to the fact that it is becoming increasingly difficult to conduct this activity: this year, responsibility for the leakage of personal data has been tightened, explained Kirill Karamzin, an expert at the Digital Communications agency. For mass leaking of information about people (from 1 thousand to 10 thousand people), officials face a fine from 200 to 400 thousand rubles, sole proprietors and companies — from 3 to 5 million rubles. Companies will have to face even more severe penalties if they conceal the leak from Roskomnadzor. Fines are also threatened for failure to inform the agency about the intention to process personal information.
In the first half of 2025 alone, law enforcement officers identified over 600 crimes and initiated more than 300 criminal cases under the article on the illegal processing of personal data. It covers almost the entire range of actions with other people's data without a person's consent. And Roskomnadzor blocked 1,700 resources on which it was possible to find personal data of Russians, for example, the chatbot "Eye of God".
The black market of information leakage should be separated from the work of paid chatbots to "break through" data about a person. The latter can operate legally by providing the collected data from open sources. Anonymous "sellers" work on the black market, who transfer classified or stolen information at the risk of criminal liability.
Along with the paid services of black informants and paid chatbots, there are also free ones. At the same time, the data they leaked may be inaccurate, said independent expert Andrei Barkhota. They usually provide several options for passport data, addresses, and so on.
The illegal market has not disappeared after the measures taken this year, but due to the new risks for black informants, the cost of such services has increased significantly. Prices from 100 to 300 thousand rubles can be found on the darknet, said Alexandra Pozharskaya, an expert at the Popular Front project For Borrowers' Rights and the Moshelovka platform.
— Depending on the specific service, prices have increased 2-4 times over the year. This trend will continue due to the protective measures introduced this year," she said.
Data drain prices are heterogeneous, as a rule, the higher the risk to the information dealer, the higher the cost. A year ago, the services of doxers — hackers who collect personal information — cost at least 2-3 thousand rubles for a report on a future victim, now they cost around 5 thousand rubles, Kirill Karamzin pointed out.
At the same time, a large amount of information about a person on the black market will cost at least 70-210 thousand rubles, Andrei Barkhota noted.
This price spread is explained by the amount of work — the lower the payment, the fewer details you can request. Inexpensive "breakthroughs" may be limited, for example, only to data from banks (for example, information about existing loans).
For the most detailed "breakthroughs", an increase in cost is recorded up to 2-3 times relative to previous years, monitoring data was shared in the Servicepipe educational project.
A less active price increase is up to one and a half times compared to last year," said Maria Bakakina, adviser to the Criminal Law practice at Sokolov, Trusov and Partners. The reason for the price increase is the same: law enforcement supervision has become systemic, she concluded.
Why do they buy personal data?
The decrease in the availability of sinks is also associated with an increase in people's concern about data leaks. As a result, the business began to pay more attention to information security issues and actively implement technical controls, said Vladimir Ulyanov, head of the Zecurion analytical center.
A ban on government employees using foreign messengers can also be considered a positive trend, said the chief lawyer of the Kontur product group.Aegis and Staffcop, legal expert in information security Olga Popova.
She added: conscientious users are limited to free tools built into search engines: for example, basic phone search.
Izvestia also asked the Interior Ministry how many criminal cases of data leakage were initiated in the third quarter of 2025.
Fraudsters who use a targeted approach in developing their schemes for wealthy citizens are ready to pay for the drain, Andrei Barkhota explained. To deceive them, the attackers buy their data, then contact them on behalf of the federal authorities and pull off a well-developed scheme, he added.
In addition, confidential information is used to confirm adultery or blackmail in everyday scenarios or in order to get rid of competitors. Since the beginning of the year, about 400 thousand people have used such services once or occasionally, Andrei Barkhota estimated.
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