The mystery behind the arrest of Russian officials in early January has now transpired. The three FSB agents and a Kaspersky Labs employee had been charged for treason. The alleged intelligence officers were found to tip the U.S. authorities of the Russian hack in 2016.
The trio had been working for the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. Dmitry Dokuchaev and Sergei Mikhailov were employed with the FSB when nabbed. While former agent George Femchenkov had also been collared for the same. Ruslan Stoyanov was a cybersecurity firm, Kaspersky Labs employee.
The said culprits were detained since they had helped the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the U.S. to detain a prominent criminal hacker. With their help, the CIA was able to indict Roman V. Seleznev of Russian origin in 2014, way ahead of the U.S. elections.
Seleznev, the son of a member of Russian Parliament, and a hacker had been apprehended in Maldives during a vacation. In the digital underground, he was found to trade credit cards stolen from the U.S. He was sentenced to 27 years behind bars in April.
Mikhailov and Dokuchaev were also believed to have meddled with the U.S. electoral hacking. They might have helped the U.S. Secret Service with Seleznev case. But it does not rule out their involvement in the U.S. elections 2016 cyber breach.
There is more evidence to support that the Russian government cooperated with virtual criminals for U.S. election meddling.
Dozhd T.V. explained the treason arose from the secret information passed in regard to online fraud of Seleznev. “Specifically, as a result of processing information received from the ‘Mikhailov group, there was the high-profile arrest in 2014 of Mr. Seleznev,” they quoted.
Another TV station, Rain TV dropped in another hint of Yevgeniy Nikulin case. Information handed out by Mikhailov also made it possible for the U.S. to capture Nikulin. He had alleged been responsible for carrying out the hacks of U.S. firms Dropbox and LinkedIn. Nikulin is extradited to the U.S. as of now.
Likewise, the Mikhailov team which had successfully brought some major hackers to the limelight, is currently facing penalty by its own government.
