Shaltai Boltai

Arrests

 * Консультант Лубянки завис в Лефортово - Kommersant, January 25, 2017
 * Центр информационной безопасности ФСБ
 * Police Arrest Alleged U.S. Spy Working in Heart of Russian Cybersecurity - The Moscow Times, January 26, 2017
 * The ‘U.S. Spy’ Just Arrested in Russia Is Allegedly an Infamous Hacker, Too - The Moscow Times, January 26, 2017
 * ''Anonymous International has gained notoriety over the past several years for leaking private emails and other correspondence that has embarrassed public figures with ties to the Kremlin.
 * ''For more than three years now, the hacker collective Anonymous International has leaked documents embarrassing several prominent figures in Russian politics.
 * ''In December 2013, the group leaked an advance copy of Vladimir Putin’s New Year’s speech. In May the next year, it published emails revealing the political work of a company owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, “the Kremlin’s caterer,” including evidence that he sponsors Russia’s infamous “Internet troll factory.” In September 2014, Anonymous International shared documents and emails showing how the Moscow mayor’s office frequently placed stories in the news media surreptitiously.
 * '' 2014, the group even released correspondence between Eurasianist philosopher Alexander Dugin, who heads Tsargrad TV, and Konstantin Malofeyev, the board chairman at Tsargrad TV.
 * ''In 2015, the hackers published emails and text messages stolen from Timur Prokopenko, a Kremlin official supposedly tasked with stymying the anti-Putin opposition, Alexander Zharov, the head of Russia’s state censor, and Natalya Timakova, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s press secretary. A year later, the group also targeted Dmitry Kiselyov, “the Kremlin’s chief propagandist,” and Aram Gabrelyanov, the owner of several pro-Kremlin tabloids and news outlets.
 * Russia’s FSB Cybersecurity Team Implodes - Prevendra, January 26, 2017
 * ''Let’s meet the individuals: Sergei Mikhailov, Ruslan Stoyanov, Andrei Gerasimov...
 * Top FSB Cybersecurity Specialist Arrested on Espionage and Treason Charges - nsnbc, January 26, 2017
 * ''Sergei Mikhailov, a top-cybersecurity specialist working at Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) was arrested on Wednesday, allegedly on suspicion of leaking information to U.S. intelligence services. Should the allegations be true, it would mean that the United States had succeeded at infiltrating the very center of Russia’s defense infrastructure.
 * String of Baffling Arrests Shakes Cyber Division of FSB - Recorded Future, January 27, 2017
 * One More FSB Agent Revealed as Notorious Hacker - nsnbc, January 27, 2017
 * ''Another one of the four Russian cyber-security experts who were arrested and charged with espionage and treason has reportedly turned out to be a notorious Russian hacker who went under the alias “Forb”.
 * A Shakeup in Russia’s Top Cybercrime Unit - KrebsOnSecurity, January 28, 2017
 * ''Both Fomenko and Vrublevsky deny this, but the accusations got me looking more deeply through my huge cache of leaked ChronoPay emails for any mention of Mikhaylov or Stoyanov — the cybercrime investigators arrested in Russia last week and charged with treason. I also looked because in phone interviews in 2011 Vrublevsky told me he suspected both men were responsible for leaking his company’s emails to me, to the FBI, and to Kimberly Zenz, a senior threat analyst who works for the security firm iDefense (now owned by Verisign).
 * ''In that conversation, Vrublevsky said he was convinced that Mikhaylov was taking information gathered by Russian government cybercrime investigators and feeding it to U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies and to Zenz. Vrublevsky told me then that if ever he could prove for certain Mikhaylov was involved in leaking incriminating data on ChronoPay, he would have someone “tear him a new asshole.”
 * Russia holds third man over US hack - Sorcha Faal Damien McElroy, The Sunday Times, January 29, 2017
 * ''The Kremlin has widened an apparent crackdown on high-level figures implicated in hacking the US presidential elections. Russian newspapers said last week that Dmitry Dokuchaev, a cyber-spy and former hacker, had been arrested on Kremlin orders. He was the third leading agent to be detained on treason charges since Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign was exposed.
 * Moscow arrests third cyber spy in ongoing treason inquiry - Alexander Mercouris, The Duran, January 29, 2017
 * ''Quite possibly Mikhailov, Stoyanov and Dokuchaev are being arrested because they are named as informants in the classified 50 page report US intelligence provided to Barack Obama and Donald Trump in early January.
 * ''I have previously pointed out that because the existence of the report has been so widely publicised – so that Russian intelligence knows of its existence – and because copies of it have been so widely circulated to senior officials and other people in Washington, that all but guarantees that sooner or later Russian intelligence will get hold of a copy.
 * Russian media reports cyber spies charged with working for CIA - Alexander Mercouris, The Duran, January 31, 2017
 * How Russian Hackers Became a Kremlin Headache - Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg View, January 31, 2017
 * ''Quoting an unnamed source, Rosbalt claimed that last year, Mikhailov's unit was ordered to "work on" Shaltai Boltai. The FSB team reportedly uncovered the identities of the group's members -- but, instead of arresting and indicting them, Mikhailov's team tried to run the group, apparently for profit or political gain. According to the Rosbalt source, it was deemed that they'd gone too far after a Ukrainian website published the contents of the official mailbox that belonged to Putin adviser Vladislav Surkov. The Rosbalt leak identifies Anikeev as "Lewis," Shaltai Boltai's leader, and claims he was responsible for the Surkov hack.
 * ''The Russian leaks could be FSB red herrings. But the different pieces of evidence together point toward the Shaltai Boltai version of the arrests. That version is in line with how security agencies generally operate in Putin's Russia: Parallel to their official duties, officers often run private security operations involving blackmail and protection. If Mikhailov ran such a business out of the FSB's Information Security Center, he wouldn't stand out among his colleagues. But in the paranoid world of Putin's third presidential term, leaks of information to Ukraine and to the U.S. would have been impermissible.
 * ''The Russian leaks could be FSB red herrings. But the different pieces of evidence together point toward the Shaltai Boltai version of the arrests. That version is in line with how security agencies generally operate in Putin's Russia: Parallel to their official duties, officers often run private security operations involving blackmail and protection. If Mikhailov ran such a business out of the FSB's Information Security Center, he wouldn't stand out among his colleagues. But in the paranoid world of Putin's third presidential term, leaks of information to Ukraine and to the U.S. would have been impermissible.

Death of Oleg Erovinkin

 * Mystery death of ex-KGB chief linked to MI6 spy's dossier on Donald Trump - Robert Mendick, The Telegraph, January 27, 2017

Websites

 * https://b0ltai.org/