In a preview of its 2022 Crypto Crime Report, Chainalysis says that, overall, “roughly 74% of ransomware revenue in 2021 — over $400 million worth of cryptocurrency — went to strains we can say are highly likely to be affiliated with Russia in some way.” Platforms operating mainly on the Russian crypto market launder the bulk of extorted funds, …
Report: Large share of global crypto crime comes from Russia Read More
Russia has dismantled ransomware crime group REvil at the request of the United States in an operation in which it detained and charged the group’s members, the FSB domestic intelligence service said on Friday. The United States welcomed the arrests, according to a senior admininstration official, adding “we understand that one of the individuals who was arrested today was …
Russia takes down REvil hacking group at US request — FSB Read More
VK is launching a new program designed to protect users and their data – VK Protect. The program will bring together all technical solutions that provide protection within the VK ecosystem, and will also assist users in managing their privacy and using tools to protect their information. “We are working on a comprehensive system to improve …
VK launches information security system overhaul and user data protection program update Read More
Like many significant political developments of late, the decision to block TOR came almost unannounced by the Russian authorities. TOR — an acronym for “The Onion Router” — is encryption software that allows users to stealthily surf the Internet and bypass locally imposed web restrictions. Russian internet users spotted the blocking of TOR, and it was only after …
Ilya Sachkov, the top cybersecurity businessman who was arrested under charges of “state treason” in late September, has claimed he is innocent and asked President Putin to be transferred from jail to house arrest during the investigation. Excerpts of his letter to Putin were shared with Forbes Russia by Sachkov’s lawyer Sergey Afanasyev. “I think this is a …
Darknet forums and Telegram channels have started selling databases containing the personal information of Russians who purchased fake COVID-19 vaccination certificates and forged PCR test results. Journalists at Kommersant spoke to one vendor who offered to sell them a database with 1,000 lines of information for $120. The file contained people’s passport numbers, insurance policy numbers, telephone …
The crown jewel of Moscow’s business district, a 97-story glass tower known alternately as Federation Tower East or Vostok, is a tribute to Russia’s post-Soviet economic influence and national strength. Promotional materials for the building, which was the tallest in Europe when it was completed in 2017 and is now number 2, boast of its …
Ransomware HQ: Moscow’s tallest tower is a cybercriminal cash machine Read More
In late October Kaspersky Lab announced the acquisition of Brain4Net, an SD-WAN and NFV orchestration software developer born in Russia in 2015. “We’re going to significantly boost our cloud security capabilities and XDR offering. The acquisition enables us to develop reliable detection and response capabilities in the ‘cloud-first’ paradigm by delivering our own solutions based …
Kaspersky acquires SDN/NFV software vendor Brain4Net to boost its cloud security business Read More
On Sept. 28 Russian authorities arrested Ilya Sachkov, the 35 year-old founder and CEO of a leading Russian cybersecurity company, under “state treason” charges. The news sent a chill through the IT and business community, as it followed recent cases involving prominent tech entrepreneurs and investors in Russia — from US private equity investor Michael …
Top Russian cybersecurity executive Ilya Sachkov arrested in state treason case Read More
A cyber attack on Russian tech giant Yandex’s servers in August and September was the largest known distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack in the history of the internet, the company said on Thursday. The DDoS attack, in which hackers try to flood a network with unusually high volumes of data traffic in order to paralyse it when …
Yandex says it repelled biggest DDoS attack in history Read More
Earlier this week Chainalyis published the key findings of their 2021 Geography of Cryptocurrency report. According to this research, Eastern Europe is severely affected by illicit cryptocurrency-related activity. In relative terms, the region is second after Africa in terms of exposure — but its overall crypto economy is much larger than that of Africa. The key findings of this …
Report: Eastern Europe strikingly affected by crypto scams Read More
In its July 2021 “Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Report,” Facebook announced that it banned 63 Facebook accounts and 243 Instagram accounts for spreading disinformation about Western coronavirus vaccines. The flagged content included various memes about the supposed dangers of COVID-19 shots, especially AstraZeneca, and numerous comments posted elsewhere in English, Hindi, Spanish, and Portuguese. The disinformation …
Facebook report: Russian groups spread disinformation about Western covid vaccines Read More
