Category Archives: FSB

Adventures in Contacting the Russian FSB

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KrebsOnSecurity recently had occasion to contact the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In the process of doing so, I encountered a small snag: The FSB’s website said in order to contact them securely, I needed to download and install an encryption and virtual private networking (VPN) appliance that is flagged by at least 20 antivirus products as malware.

The reason I contacted the FSB — one of the successor agencies to the Russian KGB — ironically enough had to do with security concerns raised about the FSB’s own preferred method of being contacted. Continue reading Adventures in Contacting the Russian FSB→

U.S. government accuses Russian companies of recruiting spies, hacking for Moscow

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The Biden Administration took a sideswipe at the Russian government’s network of companies it allegedly relies on to conduct intelligence and military hacking Thursday — part of a broader effort to beat back Russian government hacking and information operations targeting Americans, the U.S. private sector and the federal government. In one of the most striking actions the Biden administration took Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Positive Technologies, a cybersecurity firm headquartered in Moscow. According to the Treasury Department, Positive Technologies may appear to be a regular IT firm, but it actually supports Russian government clients, including the Federal Security Service. The firm also “hosts large-scale conventions that are used as recruiting events for the FSB and GRU,” the Treasury Department said, referring to the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). U.S. intelligence documents show that the company has gone even further at times and has […]

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Kaspersky discovers overlap between SolarWinds hack, Turla

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Security researchers on Monday linked the SolarWinds breach to a different set of suspected Russian hacking tools, finding commonalities between that attack and the methods of the Turla group. Moscow-based Kaspersky said the source code for Sunburst, one of the nicknames for the malware that attackers used in the SolarWinds hack, overlapped with the Kazuar backdoor that Turla has deployed in the past. The Turla group is known for stalking embassies and ministries of foreign affairs in Europe and elsewhere for sensitive data. Sources have told reporters that the Russian hacking group APT29, or Cozy Bear, is responsible for the SolarWinds attack. Cozy Bear is most often linked to the SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence service. Turla, by contrast, is usually affiliated with another Russian intelligence service, the FSB. U.S. government investigators have only said the attack is “likely Russian in origin.” Cyber threat intelligence firms have been cautious about […]

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VMware Flaw a Vector in SolarWinds Breach?

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U.S. government cybersecurity agencies warned this week that the attackers behind the widespread hacking spree stemming from the compromise at network software firm SolarWinds used weaknesses in other, non-SolarWinds products to attack high-value targets. According to sources, among those was a flaw in software virtualization platform VMware, which the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) warned on Dec. 7 was being used by Russian hackers to impersonate authorized users on victim networks. Continue reading VMware Flaw a Vector in SolarWinds Breach?→

Why, and how, Turla spies keep returning to European government networks

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Turla, a group of suspected Russian hackers known for pinpoint espionage operations, have used updated tools to breach the computer network of an unnamed European government organization, according to new research. The research from consulting giant Accenture shows how, despite a large body of public data on Turla techniques, and a warning from Estonian authorities linking the hackers with Russia’s FSB intelligence agency, the group remains adept at infiltrating European government networks. The hacking tools are tailored to the victim organization, which Accenture did not name, and have been used over the last few months to burrow into the internal network and then ping an external server controlled by the attackers. The stealth is typical of Turla, which is known for stalking embassies and foreign affairs ministries in Europe and elsewhere for sensitive data. Turla’s tools are associated with a damaging breach of U.S. military networks in the mid-to-late 1990s, and an attack on […]

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Following Putin Order, FSB Cracks Down on Russian Credit Card Marketplaces

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Earlier this week I was chatting with one of the top experts on Russian Cybercrime (who has asked to remain anonymous here).  We were discussing the news that was released on 24MAR2020 that the FSB had raided 62 addresses in 11 regions of Russia a… Continue reading Following Putin Order, FSB Cracks Down on Russian Credit Card Marketplaces→

Russians Shut Down Huge Card Fraud Ring

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Federal investigators in Russia have charged at least 25 people accused of operating a sprawling international credit card theft ring. Cybersecurity experts say the raid included the charging of a major carding kingpin thought to be tied to dozens of carding shops and to some of the bigger data breaches targeting western retailers over the past decade.

In a statement released this week, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said 25 individuals were charged with circulating illegal means of payment in connection with some 90 websites that sold stolen credit card data. Continue reading Russians Shut Down Huge Card Fraud Ring→

Rare cybercrime enforcement in Russia yields 25 arrests, shutters ‘BuyBest’ marketplace

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Russian authorities arrested more than two dozen people as part of a law enforcement operation against an alleged network of illicit websites where users bought and sold stolen payment cards and personal data. The Federal Security Service (FSB) on March 20 apprehended 25 people, including Russians and foreign nationals, for their alleged roles in a digital identity theft ring, the agency announced on Tuesday. The accused scammers were allegedly running a dark web marketplace called BuyBest, or GoldenShop, and dozens of  corresponding “mirror” websites, according to an alert from the threat intelligence firm Gemini Advisory, which was obtained by CyberScoop. Alexey Stroganov, an accused hacker who went by the name “Flint24,” was among those arrested, according to a court file posted on a Moscow city website. A partial list of those those charged appears to have been published on a LiveJournal page. Multiple discussion forums on Russian-language cybercriminal markets were focused on the […]

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Russia’s FSB wanted its own IoT botnet

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If you thought the Mirai botnet was bad, what about a version under the control of Russia’s military that it could point like an electronic cannon at people it didn’t like? Continue reading Russia’s FSB wanted its own IoT botnet→

Russia Fronton Tool ‘Will Take Down Entire Countries’

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Digital Revolution has dumped a trove of documents showing Putin’s FSB commissioned a powerful DDoS tool.
The post Russia Fronton Tool ‘Will Take Down Entire Countries’ appeared first on Security Boulevard.
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