Kremlin arrests CIA spies in Russia's cybersecurity defences

[TonyGosling]

Russian authorities charge two FSB officers and cyber expert with 'treason in interests of US'
A Kremlin spokesman said Russian President Vladimir was aware of media reports about the arrests

Svetlana Reiter Wednesday 1 February 2017 The Independent Online
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-fsb-officers-kas persky-treason-us-election-2016-hacking-cyber-expert-a7557251.html

Russian authorities have charged two officers in the Federal Security Service and an employee of cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab with committing treason in the interests of the United States, a lawyer representing one of the three said.

Ivan Pavlov identified the three as Ruslan Stoyanov, head of Kaspersky's computer incidents investigation team, and two officers working for the FSB's Information Security Centre, Sergei Mikhailov and Dmitry Dokuchayev.

"My client, along with the others, has been charged with state treason and cooperating with U.S. intelligence services," Ivan Pavlov told Reuters.

The arrests were made at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow after U.S. intelligence officials accused Russian hackers of sabotaging last year's U.S. election in favour of President Donald Trump.

Moscow denies the allegations.


READ MORE
Trump’s national security advisor ‘investigated over Russia ties’
Russian newspaper Kommersant first reported the arrests last week, which it said took place in December.

The Kaspersky team headed by Stoyanov has been cooperating with the FSB since 2013 in analysing cybercrime cases and offering expertise in criminal cases concerning cybersecurity, Kommersant reported.

Kaspersky Lab confirmed Stoyanov's arrest but said the charges related to a period before he joined the company in 2012.

Pavlov declined to say which of the three he was representing, saying only that Stoyanov, the Kaspersky executive, was not his client.

A Kremlin spokesman said Russian President Vladimir Putin was aware of media reports about the arrests but the Kremlin could not confirm anything about them.

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Russia arrests four ‘American spies’ working as top cybersecurity officials
Ashitha Nagesh for Metro.co.uk Friday 27 Jan 2017 12:43 pm
http://metro.co.uk/2017/01/27/russia-arrests-four-american-spies-worki ng-as-top-cybersecurity-officials-6409849/

Russia arrests four 'American spies' working as top cybersecurity officials
Two of the alleged spies were working for the FSB (Picture: Getty Images)
Four senior cybersecurity officials in Russia have been arrested on suspicion of being American spies leaking information back to the US.

The latest alleged spy to be arrested was Sergei Mikhailov, who is accused of using his senior position in the Federal Security Service (FSB) to leak classified information to US intelligence agencies.

According to the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Mikhailov is thought to have tipped off US officials about Vladimir Fomenko and his server rental company ‘King Servers’, which was identified last September as an ‘information nexus’ that was used by hackers suspected of working for Russian state security in cyberattacks.

One of the other men to be arrested was Dmitry Dokuchaev, a colleague of Mikhailov’s at the FSB.

If the claims about Mikahilov and Dokuchaev are true, it would mean that Washington DC had a spy in the heart of Russian national security.

The FSB building in Moscow (Picture: Getty Images)
The FSB building in Moscow (Picture: Getty Images)
It was also announced that Ruslan Stoyanov, a manager at Kapersky Lab, was arrested in December.

Kapersky Lab is Russia’s biggest cybersecurity firm and, as head of its computer incidents investigations unit, Stoyanov was in charge of investigating hacking attacks.

Respected Russian paper Kommersant said that both Mikhailov and Stoyanov are facing charges of treason.


Did Der Spiegel go too far with this illustration of Donald Trump?
Maria Shirokova, a spokeswoman for Kapersky, said in a statement that Stoyanov’s arrest had ‘nothing to do with Kapersky Lab and its operations’. She said the company has no details of the charges faced by Stoyanov, adding that the investigation pre-dates his time with Kapersky.

Stoyanov’s previous jobs, according to LinkedIn, include a position at the Cyber Crime Unit at the Russian interior ministry in the early 2000s.

The name of the fourth suspect is currently unknown.

All four men are now facing charges of treason.

Russia was accused of meddling in the US election to help Donald Trump win (Picture: Getty Images)
Russia was accused of meddling in the US election to help Donald Trump win (Picture: Getty Images)
This follows a tense few months in which the US accused Russia of interfering with its presidential election to help Donald Trump win – a claim the Kremlin fervently rejects.

US and EU officials have also accused Russia of hacking other Western institutions, and raised concerns that the Kremlin may try to influence this year’s elections in France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Babysitter, 22, donates part of her liver to save the life of child she looks after (Picture:George Rosko/Facebook)
Woman, 22, donates part of her liver to save the life of child she babysits
It is not known whether the arrests are somehow connected to these recent allegations.

Andrei Soldatov, who has studied the internet and Russian security services for more than a decade, called the arrest of Stoyanov ‘unprecedented’.

‘It destroys a system that has been 20 years in the making,’ he said. ‘The system of relations between intelligence agencies and companies like Kapersky. Intelligence agencies used to ask for Kapersky’s advice, and this is how informal ties were built.

‘This romance is clearly over.’


Jeremy Corbyn gives speech saying people 'chose to be gay'


http://metro.co.uk/2017/01/27/russia-arrests-four-american-spies-worki ng-as-top-cybersecurity-officials-6409849/