Documents leaked from Vulkan cybersecurity firm also raise questions about role of IT engineers behind information-control project

A consortium of media outlets have published a bombshell investigation about Russia’s cyber-capabilities, based on a rare leak of documents. The files come from NTC Vulkan, a cybersecurity firm in Moscow that doubles as a contractor to Russian military and intelligence agencies.

They reveal how, for years, a group of top Russian IT engineers have been hired to work with Russian military intelligence and a research facility of the FSB, Vladimir Putin’s domestic spy agency. This might seem an unusual mix, and would have been unimaginable before the end of the cold war.

Andrei Soldatov is the author of The Compatriots: The Russian Exiles Who Fought Against the Kremlin

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from Data and computer security | The Guardian https://ift.tt/WTOPxZd
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• Documents leaked by whistleblower angry over Ukraine war

• Private Moscow consultancy bolstering Russian cyberwarfare

• Tools support hacking operations and attacks on infrastructure

• Documents linked to notorious Russian hacking group Sandworm

• Russian program aims to control internet and spread disinformation

The inconspicuous office is in Moscow’s north-eastern suburbs. A sign reads: “Business centre”. Nearby are modern residential blocks and a rambling old cemetery, home to ivy-covered war memorials. The area is where Peter the Great once trained his mighty army.

Inside the six-storey building, a new generation is helping Russian military operations. Its weapons are more advanced than those of Peter the Great’s era: not pikes and halberds, but hacking and disinformation tools.

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