Top
Russian cyber security compromised – Does that prove the Russian dossier?
Russia
Charges Show U.S. Intelligence Compromised Top Cyber-Cops
by Stepan Kravchenko February 1, 2017, 2:53 PM
EST
·
Lawyer confirms agents accused of U.S. intelligence ties
·
More than three people facing treason charges, lawyer says
Prosecutors in Moscow suspect that U.S. intelligence compromised
one of Russia’s most senior cyber security officials and have charged him and
at least two others with treason in the case, according to a lawyer involved.
The three were detained in December and
include Sergei Mikhailov, who was a top official in the information-security
division of the Federal Security Service, the main successor to the KGB, and
Dmitry Dokuchaev, a member of his staff. The third suspect to be named publicly
is Ruslan Stoyanov, a manager at Kaspersky Lab, a
Russian cyber security company.
Kremlin
spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday the case isn’t linked to the alleged
hacking of U.S. political parties and election boards that roiled the
presidential campaign last year. He called such charges -- made by U.S.
intelligence late last year -- “absurd insinuations.”
The
three men have been charged with treason for allegedly “interacting” with U.S
intelligence, said Ivan Pavlov, a defense lawyer in the case. He declined to
name his client, citing confidentiality. “What we know is only the tip of the
iceberg,” he said in an interview. “We have very limited access to
information.”
Suspects Jailed
The FSB
didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment. Other lawyers in the case
couldn’t be located. The suspects are all being held in pre-trial detention and
face up to 20 years in prison if convicted, Pavlov said. Kaspersky last week
confirmed Stoyanov’s arrest but said the alleged crimes didn’t relate to his
work at the company and predated his employment there.
Stoyanov
worked in cyber security at Russia’s Interior Ministry before joining
Kaspersky. Once at the company, Stoyanov worked closely with Mikhailov’s
department at the FSB, and the two interacted as part an anti-DDoS project the
company developed for clients in Russia, according to a person familiar with
the cyber security firm.
“As a
private company, Kaspersky Lab has no political ties to any government, and is
proud to collaborate with authorities of many countries and international
law-enforcement agencies to fight cybercrime, including anti-DDoS protection
efforts,” the company said in response to a request for comment, adding that it
doesn’t help any government in offensive efforts.
Few
details of the investigation, which has been underway for at least a year, have
been made public, though local media have reported often-conflicting accounts
of the case citing unnamed sources.
The accusations
date back to 2012, according to one person familiar with the case, who asked
for anonymity to discuss confidential matters. Pavlov declined to comment on
details of the charges. He said there are other defendants as well, but didn’t
identify them.
Hacking Case
Russian
media have reported that the case could be connected to the U.S. Federal Bureau
of Investigation’s warning last August about unauthorized attempts to access
the computers of election boards in Arizona and Illinois. The owner of the
Russian server company later linked to those contacts, Vladimir Fomenko, said
he wasn’t involved in the treason probe and doesn’t know the suspects.
Pavlov,
the lawyer, also dismissed another explanation of the case reported in the
Russian media, which suggested a link to hacking attacks in recent years on
high-profile Russian officials by a group that called itself Shaltay Boltay
(Humpty Dumpty in Russian). The group published purloined e-mails from senior
officials, including top Kremlin aides.
A Moscow
court late last year ordered former journalist Vladimir Anikeev held on charges
of unauthorized access to computer information by an organized group. He had
been detained in November. Russian media have reported he was linked to Shaltay
Boltay, although that hasn’t been confirmed officially. His lawyer couldn’t be
reached.
No comments:
Post a Comment