5 ms·

Treason charges against Russian cyber experts linked to 7-year-old accusations

51 points by mzs 10y ago

conistonwater 10y ago
Does anybody know if we can read the actual indictment somewhere?
- isubkhankulov 10y ago
  I can't tell if you're joking or not In case you're not aware, russia's judicial system is a bit behind the US, especially when it comes to transparency.
- purple-again 10y ago
  Ask Putin how he feels about the "Freedom of Information Act" ;)
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- mirimir 10y ago
  Which draft?
- Const-me 10y ago
  Doesn’t matter. They can, and often do, write whatever they want; this applies to both indictments and verdicts. Modern Russia is an authoritarian state. Judicial system there is 100% controlled by the executive branch. This also applies to the legislative branch, media, municipal authorities, and 70% of the economy.
baybal2 10y ago
What so secret that guy could have disclosed? That Kaspersky writes the "ware?" and has more devs writing it than their poopy AV programs? That was hardly a secret for god knows how many years.
fixxer 10y ago
Redacted
- mc32 10y ago
  I guess from this I can surmise the Chinese run a tighter ship. I've not heard of Chinese charged with treason for disclosing cyber espionage to US agents. Either that or they are as sloppy but the NYT doesn't follow those stories. Or Chinese authorities don't care about leaks from their experts.
gesman 10y ago
Now we know ~0.1% of the whole story.
jdp23 10y ago
As Marcy Wheeler points out, this is something Bryan Krebs had suggested last month: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/01/a-shakeup-in-russias-top-cybercrime-unit/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/01/a-shakeup-in-russias-top... https://www.emptywheel.net/2017/02/26/reuters-confirms-krebs-supposition-on-russian-treason-charges/ https://www.emptywheel.net/2017/02/26/reuters-confirms-krebs...
- akhilcacharya 10y ago
  >My suspicion is that the King Servers connection identified other associations that were far more sensitive for Russia than just an old spam business grudge. And that’s why Vrublevsky is finally getting his revenge Hmm I hope we can have an independent investigation about this.
zigzigzag 10y ago
December's arrests came shortly after the United States accused Russia of trying to influence its presidential election through computer hacking, an accusation Moscow denies They're referring to the Clinton campaign leaks here, right? Not actual hacking of voting infrastructure, which is what it sounds like. Unless the story has moved on whilst I wasn't watching.
- jlgaddis 10y ago
  It has.
  - zigzigzag 10y ago
    So can you show me evidence of this? Because a few of the obvious Google searches to try just throw up lots of western news stories saying that no such thing ever happened.
    - mikeyouse 10y ago
      Via Krebs, they are suspected of being tied to these hacks: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-illinois-state-board-of-elections-hack-update-met-0830-20160829-story.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-illinoi... https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-is-investigating-foreign-hacks-of-state-election-systems/2016/08/29/6e758ff4-6e00-11e6-8365-b19e428a975e_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-i...
      - zigzigzag 10y ago
        Those two stories both refer to incidents that have nothing to do with affecting election outcomes, and could have been done by anyone. There's a lot of insinuation that it's by generic "Russians" and there sure is a lot of online crime coming out of former Soviet states, but as the second article points out in the text, it can easily be criminals. This is especially the case because American personal details are so easily used for various forms of financial fraud. But we're not talking about petty theft of SSNs which may or may not come from Russians here. We're talking about deliberate foreign intelligence operations against actual voting infrastructure. Which hasn't happened.

51 points by mzs 10y ago

conistonwater 10y ago

Does anybody know if we can read the actual indictment somewhere?

isubkhankulov 10y ago
I can't tell if you're joking or not In case you're not aware, russia's judicial system is a bit behind the US, especially when it comes to transparency.
purple-again 10y ago
Ask Putin how he feels about the "Freedom of Information Act" ;)
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
mirimir 10y ago
Which draft?
Const-me 10y ago
Doesn’t matter. They can, and often do, write whatever they want; this applies to both indictments and verdicts. Modern Russia is an authoritarian state. Judicial system there is 100% controlled by the executive branch. This also applies to the legislative branch, media, municipal authorities, and 70% of the economy.

baybal2 10y ago

What so secret that guy could have disclosed? That Kaspersky writes the "ware?" and has more devs writing it than their poopy AV programs? That was hardly a secret for god knows how many years.

fixxer 10y ago

Redacted

mc32 10y ago
I guess from this I can surmise the Chinese run a tighter ship. I've not heard of Chinese charged with treason for disclosing cyber espionage to US agents. Either that or they are as sloppy but the NYT doesn't follow those stories. Or Chinese authorities don't care about leaks from their experts.

gesman 10y ago

Now we know ~0.1% of the whole story.

jdp23 10y ago

As Marcy Wheeler points out, this is something Bryan Krebs had suggested last month: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/01/a-shakeup-in-russias-top-cybercrime-unit/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/01/a-shakeup-in-russias-top... https://www.emptywheel.net/2017/02/26/reuters-confirms-krebs-supposition-on-russian-treason-charges/ https://www.emptywheel.net/2017/02/26/reuters-confirms-krebs...

akhilcacharya 10y ago
>My suspicion is that the King Servers connection identified other associations that were far more sensitive for Russia than just an old spam business grudge. And that’s why Vrublevsky is finally getting his revenge Hmm I hope we can have an independent investigation about this.

zigzigzag 10y ago

December's arrests came shortly after the United States accused Russia of trying to influence its presidential election through computer hacking, an accusation Moscow denies They're referring to the Clinton campaign leaks here, right? Not actual hacking of voting infrastructure, which is what it sounds like. Unless the story has moved on whilst I wasn't watching.

jlgaddis 10y ago
It has.
- zigzigzag 10y ago
  So can you show me evidence of this? Because a few of the obvious Google searches to try just throw up lots of western news stories saying that no such thing ever happened.
  - mikeyouse 10y ago
    Via Krebs, they are suspected of being tied to these hacks: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-illinois-state-board-of-elections-hack-update-met-0830-20160829-story.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-illinoi... https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-is-investigating-foreign-hacks-of-state-election-systems/2016/08/29/6e758ff4-6e00-11e6-8365-b19e428a975e_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-i...
    - zigzigzag 10y ago
      Those two stories both refer to incidents that have nothing to do with affecting election outcomes, and could have been done by anyone. There's a lot of insinuation that it's by generic "Russians" and there sure is a lot of online crime coming out of former Soviet states, but as the second article points out in the text, it can easily be criminals. This is especially the case because American personal details are so easily used for various forms of financial fraud. But we're not talking about petty theft of SSNs which may or may not come from Russians here. We're talking about deliberate foreign intelligence operations against actual voting infrastructure. Which hasn't happened.