Data operators expand personal cybersecurity services

Data operators and ecosystem owners are increasingly offering customers enhanced cybersecurity, including for a fee. New services include additional protection of personal data and monitoring of changes in credit history, which are provided by MTS and Sber. But mostly players implement solutions to identify numbers, combat telephone fraud and spam. For telecom operators, they complement the functionality of the Antifraud state system. Experts believe that the demand for services will grow, and their inclusion in subscriptions could bring the operator billions of rubles in additional income per month.

Kommersant got acquainted with the J`son & Partners Consulting study on digital security services for communication subscribers and users of large ecosystems. It follows from this that operators are actively developing their own solutions to combat telephone fraud, mainly caller ID, anti-fraud and anti-spam systems. Virtual assistants, ad blocking features, and child safety services are also available. Analysts note that the segment of services for protection against personal data leaks and monitoring of credit history has just begun to develop, and MTS and Sber are present in it.

The overall rating of the top 5 ecosystem players in the subscriber digital security services market includes MTS, VimpelCom, MegaFon, Yandex and Tele2. The rating was calculated based on data on the effectiveness of blocking unwanted calls, the completeness and complexity of the service portfolio, as well as their functionality.

“Currently, most anti-spam services are provided free of charge to ecosystem users or subscribers. But there are exceptions with a paid subscription starting from 3 rubles. per day,” says Irina Radyushkina, head of the IT services analytics department at J`son & Partners Consulting. Alexey Slukin, editor of the Telekommunalka profile Telegram channel, explains that personal data protection functions are either part of a subscription to the operator’s services, or are connected separately for a fixed payment.

MTS Defender product director Andrey Biychuk says that “more than 40 million of the company’s subscribers use one or another MTS security product.” MegaFon clarified to Kommersant that more than 10 million of their subscribers use a virtual assistant that identifies an incoming number for free, but blocking numbers is only available in the paid version.

VimpelCom uses its own anti-fraud platform, which is based on a virtual assistant that warns subscribers about spam calls and, at the client’s discretion, automatically blocks them. There are paid and free versions. Tele2’s anti-spam service is free, but it must be activated. Tinkoff Mobile noted that services for blocking unwanted calls and spam mailings work “automatically and free of charge.” Yandex’s Caller ID detects “spam calls, calls from couriers, etc.,” the company says. Sberbank did not respond to the request.

“The operator’s antifraud system does not duplicate the solution of the Antifraud Group of Companies (a node for interaction with operator systems for replenishing the database of substitute numbers, launched in January 2023.— “Kommersant”), but works in cooperation with it,” explained Tele2. Andrey Biychuk adds that “Antifraud, like everyone else, acts as a first-circuit defense and works for the entire base for free.” “Next, we build a “security circuit” for each subscriber; you can decide which calls will be blocked and which will not,” he clarified.

The demand for services to protect personal data, credit history and financial information will grow, Irina Radyushkina is sure. “With fraud on the rise, it is not surprising that leading players have already begun to offer early solutions in this area,” she says. “The more degrees of protection a service has, the more attractive it is,” notes Alexey Slukin. “But it is difficult to calculate how much companies earn from a specific solution for protecting personal data in the “general pile” of subscription services. It can be assumed that the economic effect of the personal data protection service is about 0.7–1 billion rubles. per month per company.”

Alexey Zhabin