Foreign Policy

Court document points to Kaspersky Lab’s cooperation with Russian security service

Kaspersky Lab, a Russian cybersecurity firm, has long asserted its independence of the Russian government. But a court document posted on the Facebook page of a Russian criminal suspect this year shows what appears to be an unusual degree of closeness to the FSB, the country’s powerful security service.

The suspect, Konstantin Kozlovskiy, was arrested in the summer of 2016 in connection with a series of cyber heists of Russian banks, and he is in a Moscow jail awaiting trial. From his cell, he posted documents related to his case.

One of them shows that in April 2015, an FSB agent inside the office of Kaspersky Lab in Moscow gave a company technician a password for a suspected Russian cyber criminal’s computer. The technician gained access to the computer and obtained decrypted documents for the agent.

You've reached your daily free article limit.

Subscribe and support our veteran writing staff to continue reading.

Get Full Ad-Free Access For Just $0.50/Week

Enjoy unlimited digital access to our Military Culture, Defense, and Foreign Policy coverage content and support a veteran owned business. Already a subscriber?

Kaspersky Lab, a Russian cybersecurity firm, has long asserted its independence of the Russian government. But a court document posted on the Facebook page of a Russian criminal suspect this year shows what appears to be an unusual degree of closeness to the FSB, the country’s powerful security service.

The suspect, Konstantin Kozlovskiy, was arrested in the summer of 2016 in connection with a series of cyber heists of Russian banks, and he is in a Moscow jail awaiting trial. From his cell, he posted documents related to his case.

One of them shows that in April 2015, an FSB agent inside the office of Kaspersky Lab in Moscow gave a company technician a password for a suspected Russian cyber criminal’s computer. The technician gained access to the computer and obtained decrypted documents for the agent.

The agent, A.V. Kutasevich, worked side-by-side with the Kaspersky technician, Ruslan Sabitov, in the “information retrieval” operation, according to the document, dated April 28, 2015.

 

Read the whole story from The Washington Post.

Featured image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

About SOFREP News Team View All Posts

The SOFREP News Team is a collective of professional military journalists. Brandon Tyler Webb is the SOFREP News Team's Editor-in-Chief. Guy D. McCardle is the SOFREP News Team's Managing Editor. Brandon and Guy both manage the SOFREP News Team.

COMMENTS

You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article.

More from SOFREP

REAL EXPERTS.
REAL NEWS.

Join SOFREP for insider access and analysis.

TRY 14 DAYS FREE

Already a subscriber? Log In