MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/. Attacks using the phone accounted for 87% of losses from cyber fraudsters in Russia during the coronavirus pandemic. Moreover, in 77% of cases, attackers posed as employees of financial institutions, according to Director of the Information Security Department of the Bank of Russia Vadim Uvarov.

"At the moment, the main weapon of fraudsters is, of course, the telephone. 87% of people’s losses fall on attacks using mobile communications. 77% of the attackers who called were allegedly acting on behalf of financial organizations," he said.

According to him, it is becoming more and more difficult for fraudsters to deceive people as the level of information security awareness has increased.

"We have seen that the number of fraudulent calls has increased. This means that they need to put in much more effort to maintain high level of profit from fraudulent activities. The reason for this is that people have become more knowledgeable about information security, it has become more difficult to deceive them," Uvarov added.

Earlier, the Bank of Russia reported that the losses of Russians from attacks by cyber fraudsters in the Q3 increased by 32% and reached 2.5 bln rubles ($33.1 mln).