https://the-newspapers.com/2017/02/03/the-case-of-the-russian-hacker-shows-a-real-spy-network
http://vz.ru/society/2017/2/2/856072.html
“The case of the Russian hacker” shows a real spy network
03.02.2017
Despite earlier denials, two former FSB officers and one former Manager of “Kaspersky Lab” is really charged with treason in favor of the United States, said the lawyer of one of arrested. So loud “the case of the Russian hacker” has become overtly spyware shade, from what we can make several important conclusions.
Even before the speech of the counsel that those arrested on charges of treason and hackers FSB of Russia has given sensitive information about the CIA, this is reported “Interfax” with reference to the sources familiar with the situation. “Head of Department of information security Center (Tsib) of the FSB Sergei Mikhailov and his Deputy Dmitry Dokuchaev accused of violating the oath, began to cooperate with the CIA. Only in the case arrested four people, and as partners appear up to eight people. The prosecution presented only four, the rest can get away with a status of a witness”, – said one of interlocutors of the Agency.
“It generated the version about “embedded agent-the illegal immigrant,” the boy Prodigy, sent to the computer system FSB with long-term goals. And then came the day when he passed, the CIA and the FBI “Russian hackers” that led to the power of Donald trump. The curtain and the congressional Medal of honor”
Another source stressed that “the themes of hacking and betrayal are superimposed on each other in the case, but do not intersect”. “Each of the defendants engaged in the business: those who had developed and applied a scheme of cyber attacks, and someone who cooperated with foreign intelligence services. And these directions were parallel and, as a rule, do not overlap” – said the Agency interlocutor.
The whole group, according to him, were connected by the fact that they knew each other and had to do IT-technologies and information security. “And mainly in the chain was not a senior position and rank,” – said the source.
The CIA flatly refuse to comment on the allegations. And this is the most interesting in this story.
All attempts to imagine what exactly could be expressed “cooperation with the CIA” nothing more than speculation. In addition to the extreme delicacy of the subject, there are legal limitations like the law on state secrecy and the secrecy of the investigation directly. Even retraining Mikhailov and Dokuchaev charges for the 275-th article of the criminal code (also known as “death to spies”), while the rest are at 272 (illegal access to computer information), can be defined as “secrecy of the investigation”. It is possible that in the end, it Mikhailova and Dokuchaev in his “spy” component can be allocated in separate production, and “pranks”, like hacking e-mail Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and the staff of the presidential administration, defendants are cast in conditional terms.
The fundamental question here is “degree” and a way of collaboration with foreign intelligence, if we forget about the content of the information which, according to the prosecution, these two passed to the CIA. It’s one thing if the Colonel Mikhailov clearly knew and understood that the employee of a foreign intelligence interest to some of that data is “death to spies”. If I was suspicious but had no clear evidence, it is 275-I. And the person who made such a fabulous career at such a young age, obviously are not deprived of any intelligence or talent, so no, they could not guess.
Another thing, if the information was leaked to certain third parties, which already on its own initiative, passed it to the CIA or anyone else. Or the third parties are just doing their job, and Colonel Mikhailov – idiot or entangled in the mass of dirt. In this context, sources indicate (note that this is all informal and unprovable information and reasoning on this subject – the mind game) on two US citizens – Kimberly Zenz and Dmitry Alperovich.
The first analyst on “the fight against Russian hackers” in the American company iDefence – “daughter” Verisign, the largest company in the world that supports domain names, including the two most important: com and net. The company never hid its cooperation with us intelligence agencies.
The second is technical Director and co-founder of CrowdStrike, the famous just in the world of cyber espionage and hacking. This child Prodigy, a graduate of the Technological Institute of Georgia, was born in Moscow, but his parents emigrated when he was just 15 years old. In particular, he led the “Operation Aurora” against Chinese hackers who attacked Google in 2010. Foreign Policy magazine included him in the list of 100 global thinkers. In this list, of course, strange people come across, but Alperovich got there.
Both of these extraordinary people were familiar or, in professional language, “were in touch” with Ruslan Stoyanov, head of Department of “Kaspersky Lab”, the first arrested on these criminal cases, which is thought to give fundamental indications on Mikhailov.
One of the former partners Stoyanova, when he didn’t work for Kaspersky, and owned his own company “Indrik”, was a citizen of the Russian Federation Dmitry Levashov, part – time- law husband of Kimberly Zenz. Presumably, some household follows Stoyanov was on, and Alperovich. He then introduced the first Zinc Dokuchaev, then sort by Mikhailov, and then all together – with Alperovich. Thus two employees of the FSB secret the most important information was to go into the two largest companies on cyber security that are directly linked to the CIA, the NSA and the FBI.
This, perhaps, explains the words of one source, “the main thing was not of senior rank”. The role of initiators of creation of a spy network and asking Stoyanov Dokuchaev. These men and previously had a penchant for adventure, especially Dokuchaev, who combined the work of the FSB with the publication of columns by the technique of hacking in one of the specialized computer magazines. There is evidence that he started as a young hacker, which the FSB was involved the threat of jail for stealing money from Bank accounts. On this basis, he met with Stoyanov, who (again, allegedly) has long collaborated with the CDC FSB on an informal basis.
While Kimberly Zenz became the first in the United States, who firmly “got” on “Russian hackers”, and in 2007 through the Washington Post highlighted some of the St. Petersburg hosting company, accusing it of facilitating cybercrime and the theft of $ 150 million through phishing. Dmitri Alperovich in September 2016, the first accused “Russian hackers associated with the secret services” in the hacking of the servers of the National Committee of the democratic party. Authority Alperovich as the world expert in this field, “consecrated” the rest of the anti-Russian campaign. In the US, these charges have little doubt it is because of involvement in the case from respected professionals and recognized leaders of the market of security protection.
Colonel Mikhailov in this story appears as the slave character, whose computer two enterprising adventurer was dragged into a murky business to earn money and to get off this merry-go-round subsequently, he had through the doors Lefortovo. It does not correspond to the introductory data of his personality, which a little, and they are quite strange.
Of all people, had in the past in the present or having regard to any special services, there are problems with the official biographies. There can be multiple versions of these, they often hang out on the Internet and the media in parallel, giving rise to numerous issues. Sometimes disappear a few years of work, sometimes you have specified a different year of birth (wormed, for instance, from long-forgotten documents “legends”), sometimes superimposed on each other schools. But the man did not have any childhood – it does not happen. Sergey Mikhailov was born in Belarus, and received the Russian citizenship in the mid 90-ies. That in Russia that in Belarus then was such a mess that any documents were “lost” and “were” depending on the amount. Belarus is still in this sense a black hole, but a person must be at least classmates, childhood friends, neighbors, cousins, aunts and uncles in Mogilev. They are not. To obtain Russian citizenship Mikhailov as it did not exist.
This created a phantasmagoric version of the “embedded agent-the illegal immigrant,” the boy Prodigy, sent to the computer system FSB (which had just started to form) with long-term goals. And then came the day when he passed, the CIA and the FBI “Russian hackers” that led to power of Putin’s protege of Donald trump. The curtain and the congressional Medal of honor.
A good script for the television network HBO. Moreover, it is technically possible if you remember all the circumstances of life in 90 years. Another thing is that the introduction of a young man “in the future” in the mid 90-ies of the CIA would simply never have occurred. There in those days believed that Russian intelligence and counterintelligence over forever and spend unlimited resources to work with the juvenile illegal alien simply would not allow.
One of the “birth trauma” of this story is that CDC FSB, like some other specialized units, likes to cooperate with civil companies and individual characters thereof on an informal basis. If by “Kaspersky Lab” had an official contract from the FSB to the protection of information or there is something else in this area like CrowdStrike and others from the FBI, no one would be in them a stone was thrown. And so the citizen Stoyanov something there stirred up with a senior security officer Dokuchaev with an equally murky past. This style company sooner or later would dosutils to criminal proceedings, the only question in the article and the severity of the offense.
But the motives Mikhailov is not clear. Catch the eye of an old story, in which he distinguished himself as a typical raider. There are unproven but suspicious attempts to obtain from private companies confidential information, using his official position. In the end, the person at some point almost trampled by a significant portion of the Internet, which could not harm his psychological condition. Or the amount of dirt, which can operate Dokuchaev and Stoyanov, escalated critical point. In any case, he could not understand what makes something wrong.
Details sent to the CIA of information also will affect the arguments of the prosecution and the final verdict. The impression that the most important was the IP address and the data on some servers that U.S. intelligence agencies now accused of involvement in the notorious “Russian attack” on the democratic party and (the new data) on the electoral system in Arizona and Illinois.
Under the distribution fell King service, which is owned by Russian businessman Vladimir Fomenko. But in his case, the word “businessman” can cause wrong associations. Buying servers and domain names he started when he was 18 years old. He is now 26, he lives in Altai, Biysk, and snowboarding, and to keep company that controls the servers in the Netherlands, and removing toe snowboard. The FBI claims that its servers had been sent phishing emails, Fomenko claims that he knew nothing about it. As evidence for the prosecution the U.S. side makes the tattoo on the neck Fomenko (apparently – typical of the juvenile hacker, how is the film industry), suspiciously similar to the symbol of the hacker organization Anonymous. And he admits that a large part of the income from its servers and bring the pornographers. To understand whether service cyber security just traced the server or they gave the “spy group Mikhaylova-Dokuchaeva”, is now not possible.
In any case, the amount of evidence against Mikhailov and Dokuchaeva, apparently, enough to retrain their acts on the “spy” article. But the specific circumstances and the degree of guilt will be set by the court of the Moscow garrison. The meeting which probably will be conducted behind closed doors.
The Fourth Revolutionary War 