Legal matters Category: Legal matters

Russian emblem

Federal Antimonopoly Service initiates proceedings relating to SMS spam

By Leonid Zubarev, CMS Russia / Apr 30, 2012

The Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation for the City of Moscow has initiated proceedings against the furniture company Shatura for distributing advertisements via SMS without users’ consent (SMS spam).

During the check, the Antimonopoly Service established that Shatura had violated the article of the Federal Law on Advertising which forbids the distribution of advertisements via telecoms networks, including phone-based ones, without the prior consent of the users.
Continue reading

Russian emblem

Discount site client database leaked to crooks for $6,700

Special to East-West Digital News by Oleg Kouzbit in partnership with Marchmont News / Apr 13, 2012

Baltinfo.ru, a St. Petersburg online portal, citing a police source, reported that earlier this year an employee of a popular discount site was caught red-handed trying to sell the company’s client database for 200,000 rubles (less than $6,700).

The sale of the USB flash drive, which contained sensitive client information, was arranged to occur at a popular restaurant in downtown Moscow. The police operation was conducted in early February but it then took authorities seven weeks to initiate prosecution.

Continue reading

Presidential election 2012

Cease-fire in political hacking on Election Day

By Elena Mikhaylova, Adrien Henni, East-West Digital News / Mar 05, 2012

In contrast to the massive hacker attacks that took place during the parliamentary election on December 4th and over the following weeks, no notable incidents were reported yesterday when Russian voters reelected Vladimir Putin as their president – a sign perhaps of the increased legal risks and political cost for the parties involved.

Using computer hackers in political battles had become almost common place over the last few years in Russia – the country where the largest number of DDoS attacks originated in the second half of 2011, according to a recent report from Russian Internet security provider Kaspersky.

Continue reading

Russian emblem

Vkontakte.ru too “passive” with copyright infringement, says arbitration court

By East-West Digital News / Feb 22, 2012

Last week, the St. Petersburg Arbitration Court offered long-awaited explanations about the decision it issued in January of last year regarding an alleged copyright infringement involving Vkontakte.ru, the leading social network in Russia. The Gala Records record label had accused Vkontakte of having illegally offered online copyrighted recordings by the Russian band ‘Infinity’.

Vkontakte claimed it only provided web hosting services for its users and therefore could not be liable for any copyright violations.

Continue reading

Cybercrime

Microsoft accuses Russian engineer of creating Kelihos botnet

By Elena Mikhaylova, East-West Digital News / Jan 26, 2012

Earlier this week, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit, made the findings of its Kelihos botnet investigation public, accusing Andrey Sabelnikov, a Russian engineer from St Petersburg, of having created the bot code and conducted the operation.

In the original complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in September, Microsoft alleged that Dominique Alexander Piatti and John Does, who owned a cz.cc domain, used it to register subdomains operating the Kelihos botnet. The charges against the original defendants were dismissed one month later in exchange for their cooperation, which led to identifying the creator of the malware.

Continue reading

Pavel Vrublevsky

Vrublevsky freed after 6 months in jail

By Elena Mikhaylova, East-West Digital News / Dec 30, 2011

Pavel Vrublevsky was released last week after spending 6 months in Lefortovo prison in Moscow, following his arrest in June of 2011 for organizing a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the website of Assist, a competitor of his company, Chronopay.

A leading Russian online payment processing company, Chronopay processes almost half of all Visa and MasterCard online transactions in Russia and partners with such companies as Britain’s MoneyBookers, Spain’s Caixa Catalunya, the Deutsche Bank subsidiary Pago, and China’s Alipay.

Continue reading

Russian emblem

Moscow couple charged with video piracy with over $1 billion in damages

By East-West Digital News / Nov 03, 2011

Moscow residents Andrey and Natalya Lopukhov have been charged with Internet video piracy, with Russian and international copyright owners seeking damages estimated at over 38 billion rubles, or $1.26 billion. The Russian Office of the Prosecutor General ordered the couple to be arraigned in court on criminal charges, the Russian press reported last week.

Continue reading

Pavel Vrublevsky

ChronoPay owner Vrublevsky pleads guilty in cyber attack case, court extends detention

By East-West Digital News / Nov 02, 2011 / 3 Comments

Moscow city court confirmed almost two months of extended detention for prominent Russian Internet businessman Pavel Vrublevsky, who is expected to be held until December 23. The court has rejected an appeal filed by Vrublevsky’s attorneys to release the entrepreneur on bail for 30 million rubles, a sum of almost $1 million.

Vrublevsky, 32, was arrested on June 23 at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow upon his arrival from the Maldives, where he spent his vacation with his wife and children. Vrublevsky has been charged with having organized a cyber attack on the website of Assist, a competitor of Vrublevsky’s company ChronoPay, in an attempt to block payment transactions with the Aeroflot website.

Continue reading

Rusleaks

Russian authorities block huge new personal data leak

By East-West Digital News / Oct 03, 2011

On Thursday, October 1, a group of anonymous Russian citizens launched Rusleaks, a web site providing open access to a significant volume of personal and corporate data from a variety sources, including highly confidential ones such as the databases of Russian tax service and law enforcement agencies. The site was no more accessible today after the Russian authorities announced measures to block it.

Continue reading

Rostelecom

Rostelecom accused of misappropriating budget funds

By East-West Digital News / Sep 05, 2011

Russia’s national telecom operator Rostelecom has been accused by the Prosecutor’s Office of involvement in the misappropriation of 300 million rubles, approximately $1 million, from the government funded Electronic Russia program.

Continue reading

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
East-West Digital News is published with the support of:
  • Higher school of economics
  • The Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge
  • Russian Venture Company
  • Innovation Agency faberNovel
  • Territory of tomorrow foundation