In a move that stunned some security researchers, a top investigator at Russia’s largest antivirus provider, Kaspersky Lab, has been arrested in an investigation into treason, a crime that upon conviction can carry severe sentences.
Ruslan Stoyanov (credit: Kaspersky Lab)
Ruslan Stoyanov, the head of Kaspersky Lab’s investigations unit, was arrested in December, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported Wednesday. The paper said that Sergei Mikhailov, a division head of the Russian intelligence service FSB, was also arrested in the same probe. Stoyanov joined the Moscow-based AV company in 2012 and was chiefly involved in investigating and responding to hacking-related crimes carried out in Russia. His LinkedIn profile shows he served as a major in the cybercrime unit of Russia’s Ministry of Interior from 2000 to 2006.
“The case against this employee does not involve Kaspersky Lab,” company officials wrote in a statement issued following the report. “The employee, who is Head of the Computer Incidents Investigation Team, is under investigation for a period predating his employment at Kaspersky Lab. We do not possess details of the investigation. The work of Kaspersky Lab’s Computer Incidents Investigation Team is unaffected by these developments.”