FSB arrests Shaltai Dumpty leader

The Federal Security Service has arrested Vladimir “Lewis” Anikeev, founder of the “Humpty Dumpty” website, Rosbalt, citing its own sources. The detention of the journalist was made at the time of his arrival in St. Petersburg from Ukraine more than three months ago, at the end of October 2016. Anikeev was taken to Moscow, where he was charged under part 3 of article 272 of the Criminal Code "Illegal access to computer information by a group of individuals." The founder of “Humpty Dumpty” is accused of hacking and distributing the correspondence of the presidential aide Vladislav Surkov.



“The operation was the result of long work. A complex operational combination was played out in order to lure Lewis from Ukraine, from where he was not going to return, ”a source in the FSB told Rosbalt.

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Journalists have linked the arrest of Anikeev with the recent arrest of the deputy head of the information security center (CIB) of the FSB Sergei Mikhailov, who was charged with high treason.



According to Kommersant , Mikhailov was detained for accepting bribes from foreign companies (possibly Microsoft and Cisco). In exchange, Mikhailov had to lobby for the interests of companies in terms of countering the adoption of the law “On the Security of the Critical Information Infrastructure of the Russian Federation” or as it is called in the media, the law “On Cyber ​​Attacks”. In the framework of the same trial, one of the top managers of Kaspersky Lab Ruslan Stoyanov was detained, who could act as an intermediary between Mikhailov and foreign companies.



However, Mikhailov’s case may be even more complicated. Anikeev immediately after the arrest began to cooperate with the investigation. Often his testimony featured the previously detained Mikhailov as a person associated with the Humpty Dumpty team. It should be noted that the arrest of Mikhailov and the top manager of Kaspersky Lab was made almost a month after the arrest of Anikeev. In addition to Mikhailov, his comrade-in-arms and the “right hand” were arrested, as well as an employee of the Federal Security Service of the Federal Security Service, Dmitry Dokuchaev.



The FSB believes that in the summer of 2016, the Humpty Dumpty team had a “curator” who could play Mikhailov. After that, the site team began to conduct more and more serious attacks and plums of information, the contents of which could no longer be called "innocuous" or "entertaining." According to the FSB, the Shaltai-Boltai team began to act as a hacker group and, apart from public “plums,” began to trade in the information: during successful attacks, some of the data after the sorting was “merged” on the site, and some later cashed in Ukraine.



At the same time information was obtained in a very sophisticated way. For the planned victim of hacking was established surveillance. In a public place, a fake Wi-Fi network was deployed, to which, unknowingly, a target was connected. If mobile data interception was required, a fake cell is used.



New data on the ongoing arrests even more compromised the activities of the Central Security Service of the FSB, in which an equal sign was often put between Mikhailov and the structure.



“Mikhailov is a great specialist. The best in the business. We can say that the CIB is Mikhailov. But he began to play, "- said the source of" Rosbalt "in the FSB.



The data obtained by counterintelligence can lead to a revision of the structure of the CIB FSB. For the IT sector, it threatens to destroy all existing ties and contacts with the state, the restoration of which will take a lot of time and effort. At the same time, there is a tendency to create restrictive bills for the IT sphere (the Yarovaya-Ozerov law package, the law on cyber attacks, the law on critical infrastructure). If, due to the events described, the connection between the IT sector and the state is seriously disrupted, a “bias” may occur: the business will not be able to defend its own interests before the security and other departments, which will lead to unjustified, and in some places, dangerously strong “crackdown” .



According to information from the press secretary of the Moscow Lefortovo Court, Ekaterina Krasnova, the court authorized Anikeev to be detained until March 8.