Vulkan files leak
Leaks implicating Russian company NTC Vulkan
The Vulkan files are a leaked set of emails, and other documents, implicating the Russian company NTC Vulkan ( Russian : НТЦ Вулкан ) in acts of cybercrime , political interference in foreign affairs (such as in the 2016 United States presidential election ) through social media , censorship of domestic social media, and espionage , in collusion with Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), their armed forces (GOU and GRU ); and Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] The files date from 2016 to 2021. [1]
Background
The company NTC Vulkan was founded by Anton Markov and Alexander Irzhavsky in 2010. [1] Both are graduates of St Petersburg military academy and have served in the Russian army, with Markov reaching the rank of captain and Irzhavsky reaching the rank of major. [1]
Vulkan received special licences to work on classified military and state projects from 2011. [1]
It has more than 120 staff, 60 of who are programmers, [1] and describes its speciality as information security. [1] It lists Sberbank , Aeroflot and Russian Railways as customers. [1]
Leaks
The documents, numbering in their thousands, were leaked to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung within days of the 24 February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine by a whistleblower who opposed that war, [1] and were analysed by journalists from that publication and The Guardian , Le Monde and Washington Post , with several other media outlets, as part of a consortium led by Paper Trail Media and Der Spiegel . [1] [6] [3] The consortium published the first details of its investigation on 30 March 2023. [2] [3]
Five Western intelligence agencies and several independent cybersecurity experts authenticated the files. [1] [7] [3]
Connections with other organisations
The documents link Vulkan to the GRU run hacker group Sandworm . [1] [3] Vulkan was contracted to write software called Scan-V to support searching for weak spots in systems to be targeted. [3] [1] Scan-V was commissioned in May 2018. [1]
The documents link Vulkan to the Cozy Bear hacker group, according to Google researchers. [1] [3]
Vulkan won an initial contract to create a system called Amezit in 2016. [1] Amezit is designed to allow control of and interception of internet, wireless and mobile communications. [1] [8] In 2018 some employees went in connection to Amezit to Rostov-on-Don to visit the Radio Research Institute, which is linked to the Federal Security Service . [1] It is not known if it has been used in parts of Ukraine occupied by the Russian Army. [1]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Harding, Luke; Ganguly, Manisha; Sabbagh, Dan (30 March 2023). " 'Vulkan files' leak reveals Putin's global and domestic cyberwarfare tactics" . The Guardian .
- 1 2 "The Washington Post joins news organizations in Vulkan Files investigation" . Washington Post . 30 March 2023 . Retrieved 30 March 2023 .
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Claburn, Thomas (31 March 2023). "Leaked IT contractor files detail Kremlin's stockpile of cyber-weapons" . The Register . Retrieved 1 April 2023 .
- ↑ Lister, Tim (17 March 2023). "Secret document reveals Russia's 10-year plan to destabilize Moldova" . CNN . Retrieved 1 April 2023 .
- ↑ "Leaked document reveals alleged Kremlin plan to take over Belarus by 2030" . Kyiv Independent . 21 February 2023 . Retrieved 1 April 2023 .
- ↑ Antoniadis, Nikolai; Baumann, Sophia; Buschek, Christo; Christoph, Maria; Diehl, Jörg; Epp, Alexander; Grozev, Christo; Höfner, Roman; Hoppenstedt, Max; Huppertz, Carina; Kollig, Dajana; Kornfeld, Anna-Lena; Lehberger, Roman; Munzinger, Hannes; Obermaier, Frederik; Obermayer, Bastian; Petrov, Fedir; Rojkov, Alexandra; Rosenbach, Marcel; Schulz, Thomas; Tanriverdi, Hakan; Wiedmann-Schmidt, Wolf (30 March 2023). "The Vulcan Files: A Look Inside Putin's Secret Plans for Cyber-Warfare" . Der Spiegel International . Retrieved 3 April 2023 .
- ↑ Timberg, Craig; Nakashima, Ellen; Munzinger, Hannes; Tanriverdi, Hakan (30 March 2023). "Secret trove offers rare look into Russian cyberwar ambitions" . Washington Post . Retrieved 30 March 2023 .
- ↑ Soldatov, Andrei (30 March 2023). "Cyberwarfare leaks show Russian army is adopting mindset of secret police" . The Guardian . Retrieved 2 April 2023 .
External links
- "Putins Krieg im Netz [ Putin's Cyber-War ] " . Der Spiegel (in German). Hamburg, Germany.