MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. The number of crimes using IT technologies exceeded half a million in 2022 and accounted for a quarter of all criminal offenses, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at an expanded meeting of the Interior Ministry board on Monday.

"One of the unconditional priorities of your work is the fight against crimes using IT technologies. At the end of 2022, the number of such crimes has already exceeded half a million and amounted to a quarter of all criminal offenses," he said.

The head of state acknowledged that these figures were impressive, noting that the increase in the number of crimes of this nature "is due to the development of these technologies."

Putin drew attention to the fact that Russia started to introduce new measures of protection against remote actions of malefactors, and criminal schemes in the information space were being actively uncovered. "It is important to constantly inform citizens about new varieties of such crimes, to teach how to protect themselves from these crimes, in general - to increase the digital literacy," the president pointed out.