Not long after Tamerlan Tsarnaev bombed the Boston Marathon, investigative reporter Michele McPhee went looking for answers. What she discovered, detailed in this exclusive excerpt from her new book, Maximum Harm, might just change how you think about our government and law enforcement forever.
The FSB officers accused by the U.S. justice Department are Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchyn. For ordering them since 2014 to December 2016 allegedly worked with hackers Alexey Belan and Baratov Karim. The latter was arrested yesterday in Canada, has dual citizenship, Canada and Kazakhstan. It is expected that the partnership was “mutually beneficial” – the special services received closed personal big data citizens and companies (e.g., database of customers and orders) and access confidential correspondence of high-ranking officials, and hackers stole credit cards and digital wallets for personal enrichment.22-year-old Karim Baratova, for example, was owned Mercedes-Benz C54 and convertible, Aston Martin DBS, and sports cars with six-digit price tag in dollars, which he loved to sit in social networks, and which will now be used as evidence.
Ruslan Koblev, a lawyer of the journalist Vladimir Anikeev, who was arrested on charges of the group “Anonymous international”, better known as “Humpty Dumpty,” said to Znak.com that his client admitted the charges against him. In addition, Anikeev confirmed that indeed a person known as Lewis.
Investigation into the activities of the group “Humpty Dumpty” continues. And open new connection of criminals, including in the highest circles of the Russian elite. Investigation of Constantinople brought us directly to the person previously close to Boris Berezovsky. But first think about the connection between “Saltaev” with another person from the 90’s.
The creation of parallel power structures in the history of Russian statehood has always been associated with the struggle of the state’s leaders against the elites, who are opposed to the rulers and their attempts to strengthen the country. This is why Ivan the Terrible created the Oprichnina – Peter the Great – Guard Regiments, and Nicholas I – a separate body of gendarmes. In addition, these structures traditionally acted as a mechanism to forcibly “rotate the elites”, a renewal of the ruling class.
What has also gone unmentioned is that at a time when Russia and the US would be staring each other down on a “cyber” battlefield, Putin just apparently took out a number of the key players in that field. No one has mentioned that, but even if these guys were working both sides in a manner that brought value to Putin, having them removed may leave holes in Russia’s cyber offense for the near future.
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.
A 30-year-old citizen of Ukraine Irina Shevchenko (Alice), managed to avoid arrest, who is now in Kiev and wanted. According to the interlocutor of Agency, she worked in Russia as an instructor in the fitness center, which was visited by Anikeev.
Ivan Pavlov, who is representing one of the detainees, told RFE/RL in a phone interview on February 1 that more than three people had been detained in the case. He refused to identify his client or whether his client was an employee of the FSB.
Pavlov told RFE/RL the individuals were suspected of passing on classified information to U.S. intelligence, but not necessarily the CIA.
Alleged leader of hacker group “Humpty Dumpty” Vladimir Anikeyev made a deal with the investigation, but his criminal case is irrelevant to those arrested for treason to the staff of CDC FSB of the Russian Federation, told RIA Novosti on Wednesday a source familiar with the case.
“Anikeev actively cooperating with the investigation, he went with authorities for a deal. His case is separate and has no relation to the arrested on charges of treason to the staff of the information security Center of FSB of the Russian Federation”, — said the Agency interlocutor.
Truly a series of high-profile arrests in the country continues. And this time it touched the cyber hackers, working in conjunction with the FSB very high-ranking employees of special services.
In the case of the leader of the hacker group “Humpty Dumpty” Vladimir Anikeev in custody are two of his alleged accomplices – Alexander Filinov and Konstantin Teplyakov accused of illegal access to computer information.
“The arrest Filinova and Teplyakov took place in November 2016. Currently measure them extended until April,” said TASS press Secretary of the Lefortovo court Ekaterina Krasnova.
Kommersant has learned the names of two more defendants in a criminal case, according to one version associated with the hacker group “Humpty Dumpty”. Along with its alleged leader Vladimir Anikeyev from the beginning of December in prison are his friend Konstantin Teplyakov, Alexander Filinov. About the latter nothing is known, but Mr. Teplyakov in 2009 he created dozens of phishing sites, and in recent years lived in Thailand and Kiev, driving real estate agencies.
Meanwhile, the Central intelligence Agency (CIA) would not comment on reports that those arrested on charges of treason and the hackers and the Russian FSB officers are accused of transferring confidential information to the CIA. “We refuse to comment on it”, – told “Interfax” the representative of American intelligence agencies.
Today a meeting of the Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev and the head of Sberbank German Gref. Because of blogs with links to informed sources, the conversation at the meeting will focus on relations Sberbank employees with hacker group “Humpty Dumpty”, a matter in respect of which the FSB is investigating.
One of the key newsmakers of the publication in addition to Kimberly Zenz was a man of Dmitry Alperovich, who left Russia in the mid-2000s and settled in the United States. In September 2016 it Alperovich, the incumbent technical Director for CrowdStrike, he was the first who accused Russian hackers associated with the secret services, in a hacking attack on the servers of the National Committee of the US Democratic party and stealing confidential documents, among which was allegedly and records on Donald trump.
Our sources confidently assume that the officers of CIB Mikhailov and Dokuchaev had contact not only with Zinc, but with Alperovich.
The hacker group “Humpty Dumpty” at different times sold or self-published correspondence of the Chairman of the government Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy head of Department on internal policy of presidential administration of Russia Timur Prokopenko and chief editor of the Life channel Aram Gabrelyanov. “Humpty Dumpty” also reported that hackers from the group Fancy Bear that in published data on taking doping athletes from a compromised database world anti-doping Agency (WADA) are related to GRU, the Russian defense Ministry.
“Head of Information Security Center of FSB of the Russian Federation Sergey Mikhailov and his deputy Dmitry Dokuchaev are charged that, in violation of their oath, they began to cooperate with the CIA,” – said one of the interlocutors of the agency.
We don’t have the information about the accusations, even in case of Mikhailov. Here we can say what we want on the basis of the name of his subdivision – FSB Information Security Centre. We need to understand the target of the crime. Without it, we will offer versions, which are likely to be wrong.
In the absence of any hard information, two broad narratives have emerged to explain the arrests. The first is that this is essentially a case of espionage, that they knowingly or unwittingly divulged state secrets to the Americans. The second is that this is instead one of the regular ‘silovik struggles’ take place within and around the security agencies, over resources, seniority or personality. The two need not, however, be mutually exclusive.
The Fourth Revolutionary War 