Cloned Boy
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The FBI accuses the Russian hacker group Evil Corp of stealing millions of dollars using ransomware, and a $5 million reward has been offered for the capture of the group's leaders. But despite UK and US sanctions, they live peacefully in Russia and do not hide their wealth.
Speaker 10:
All over the world today, authorities are searching for and storming citadels where hackers have been hiding for years. They are being hunted in Ukraine, Romania, Poland, Kuwait, South Korea. Western intelligence agencies find and arrest criminals hiding in cyberspace. Sometimes they even manage to return some of the money they stole. But there is one country that treats hackers more favorably.
Speaker 9:
They are rich, they drive expensive sports cars, they behave like extravagant millionaires.
Speaker 10:
I collect information about hackers who are among the most suspect groups in the world. The US authorities believe the gang is involved in stealing money from private bank accounts and launching cyber attacks that have caused damage in excess of $100 million. Hello, I'm looking for Maxim Yakubets. I'm a BBC correspondent.
Speaker 13:
We declared him a criminal today. On what grounds? Where is the evidence of his crime? There is none.
Speaker 10:
Russians are most often accused of committing cybercrimes. There are 27 Russian citizens on the US list of most wanted hackers. If they end up outside of Russia, they will certainly be arrested, but they feel safe at home. Most of these people are believed to be either connected to the secret services or work directly for them. Some of the hackers have criminal charges against them, but they are not hiding and lead a very extravagant lifestyle.
We want to try to find them and talk to them. In particular, to ask whether Western sanctions and public accusations affect their lives.
Speaker 8:
Good morning. Thank you for coming. Today, we bring charges against a Russian citizen who, according to the Justice Department, is responsible for two of the most serious hacks and bank frauds in decades. Yakubets is a true 21st-century modern criminal who has committed cybercrimes around the world with the stroke of a key and the click of a mouse.
He has earned a spot on the FBI’s list of the world’s most wanted criminals.
Speaker 10:
He is carrying a $5 million reward, the largest ever for a hacker. U.S. and British authorities allege that his hacker group, Evil Corp., has stolen or extorted more than $100 million worldwide from victims, a private company, a charity, and even a school.
BBC Russian Service correspondent Andrey Zakharov specializes in investigating cybercrime. Together with me, he spent several months looking for traces of hackers wanted by the US. Did you find out anything about their merchant?
Speaker 12:
Well, we have two addresses. The apartments don’t belong to him, but he used to be in one of them. We know where he once officially worked for his mother’s company. He has very nice cars. He doesn’t have a business?
Speaker 10:
No business? Okay. And I’ll show you what I found. This is a video of her merchant’s wedding. Right here. They got married on the territory of a golf club. Yes, I understand. It all happened here. Right here, on the grass. The golf club where the wedding ceremony and the merchant took place is two hours’ drive from Moscow.
The club employee was happy to show us the grounds, but did not want to go into the details of the wedding itself.
Speaker 5:
First of all, it’s probably some kind of fashionable and non-standard trend. Plus, it’s the scale, it’s the nature, it’s the clean air. We have 300 hectares of land, 150 hectares are golf courses. The honeymoon suite, the Grottvillager suite, is, let’s say, our specialty, our exclusive suite.
Speaker 10:
It’s impressive. And here the newlyweds can sit down,
Speaker 5:
The champagne package, which is exactly what we strive to get into for a photo shoot for some romantic newlyweds.
Of course, there is a certain price tag, below which we cannot fall, there are certain limits, but, in general, it’s, let’s say, affordable for those who really want to have a chic and beautiful wedding.
Speaker 10:
This is probably the most famous wedding in the history of cybersecurity. The video was discussed for a long time on the Internet, and it’s a little unusual to be in this place. Many people, including the press, claimed that the wedding cost $250,000. But I was able to find out that in reality it cost at least half a million. Half a million dollars just to hold it here. We do not know who paid for the ceremony or how.
But if Yakubets did it, then it becomes clearer how part of his alleged stolen wealth is spent here in Russia. Yakubets did not answer our calls and emails. It is time to visit the address where he was registered.
Speaker 12:
Aha, it is here.
Speaker 10:
Hello, is Maxim Yakubets home? As soon as I said Maxim Yakubets, she hung the body. I think he ... I think so.
Speaker 9:
Hello! Hello!
Speaker 10:
I am looking for Maxim Yakubets. I am a BBC correspondent.
Speaker 13:
But there is no Maxim Yakubets here at all. He hasn't been here for about 15 years, I guess.
Speaker 12:
How can we contact him? We can't contact him in any way.
Speaker 13:
Wait a second. We declared him a criminal today. On what grounds? Where is the evidence of his crime? There is none.
Speaker 10:
Maxim's father told us that ever since a $5 million reward was offered for his son's arrest, he has been in constant fear of being targeted by people who want to get their hands on that kind of money. How did your son get so rich?
Speaker 13:
Who said he was rich?
Speaker 10:
A Lamborghini.
Speaker 13:
Then it's rented, but first of all, we already...
Speaker 10:
Where did he get $600,000 for the wedding?
Speaker 13:
How much? First of all, that's a bit of an exaggeration. Document. Document, look. That's an exaggeration for the period.
Speaker 10:
So you're saying that your son is neither a criminal nor a millionaire?
Speaker 13:
He is an average statistic... He is above average because he makes money. I have a job. We can afford something. And when you talk about a pawnbroker, please provide a document stating that it belongs to Yakubets Maksim.
Speaker 12:
What does Maksim do for a living then? What does he do?
Speaker 13:
Why should I tell you this so that you can talk and then they persecute him in another case?
Speaker 12:
There is my private life. Is this Maksim?
Speaker 13:
Mom.
Speaker 10:
It seems that the accusations of the American and British authorities upset you.
Speaker 13:
It upsets me, unfortunately. It upsets me because I thought America was a great country. It has turned into a very bad country. A country that is not responsible for its actions, for its words. And does not seek the truth, but looks for those to blame for this or that act. Extremely.
Speaker 10:
We asked if we could talk to Maxim, but the father said he had no contact with his son.
Speaker 12:
Well, what do you think?
Speaker 9:
Maxim Yakubets and Igor Turyshev have been distributing the computer for the past 10 years.
Speaker 10:
The US and UK claim to have enough evidence to put Yakubets behind bars. They have direct testimony from other former members of the hacker group, cybercriminal data, and even Yakubets' correspondence on Skype and email. The investigation into their cases has been going on for so long that the case even includes evidence obtained by Russian security forces in 2010, when they were still helping the US investigate cybercrimes.
The 2019 US government statement includes other names. Not only can the Evil Corp hackers now not leave Russia without fear of arrest, they are also banned from doing business with Western companies, and all their assets in the West, if they had any, are frozen. The US has imposed sanctions on a dozen Russians. Almost all of them are accused of working directly for the Kremlin. And it’s not just the US government. Last year, the EU imposed its own cyber sanctions for the first time.
And again, the lists mostly included Russians. The Kremlin calls these accusations fantasies. Most Russians have become so accustomed to Western sanctions that they don’t pay attention to them.
But Russian cybersecurity experts are outraged by these actions. Alexandra Antipina is a professional white hat hacker. She hacks computer systems to find and eliminate vulnerabilities. Her second passion is motorsports.
Speaker 2:
At first, I thought that information security could bring adrenaline, but in fact it turned out to be more of a stressful activity, because there is responsibility. When you drive, you can crash, but it will be your fault. If you make a mistake in security, then other people will suffer too.
Speaker 10:
Like many other hackers I know, Alexander says that she got into the world of cybersecurity through computer games.
Speaker 2:
If I want to say "white hat hacker" about myself, I will not say so, because the word "hacker" is already a very negative word for us. In particular, for me it is some kind of association with some kind of criminals. Therefore, of course...
Speaker 10:
And what do you think about the stereotypical image of a Russian hacker?
Speaker 2:
Of course, it is offensive. Why are there no other hackers from other countries? Why from ours? I am surrounded by security experts, people with education, people who are doing useful work.
Speaker 1:
The long-awaited summit between US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is starting in Geneva.
Speaker 10:
Cybercrime was one of the main topics at the Biden-Putin summit in Geneva. President Biden mentioned the recent ransomware attack on the US oil pipeline network infrastructure, which led to a fuel shortage. "Responsible countries must take action against cybercriminals who commit extortion on their territory." The negotiations have not yet yielded any noticeable results.
Lilia Yaparova, an investigative journalist with an independent Russian news outlet.
Speaker 3:
"Maxim Yakubets became the uncle of a high-ranking FSB officer. After that, he began to cooperate with the FSB."
Speaker 10:
"How do you know?"
Speaker 3:
"From the US government documents. Maxim Yakubets and all his accomplices from Evil Corp have been declared enemies of the state. One of my sources, a former FSB officer, told me that he personally tried to recruit Yakubets. This is a fairly common practice in Russia.
For the FSB, a recruited hacker is more valuable than a hacker in prison.
Speaker 10:
The way the man considered Yakubets' right hand lives is another eloquent testimony to Russia's disagreement with the accusations of the American authorities.
Speaker 9:
Igor Turashev, known as Enki, also known as Ninjo-2, is a close associate of the merchant and works as a system administrator.
Speaker 10:
We found Turashev's business structure registered in the Federation Tower in Moscow City. Are three of his companies registered here? Yes. The receptionist said that there were no internal phone lines to the office, but she found a mobile number for one of the companies. After quite a long time, someone picked up the phone.
Hello, I'm looking for Igor Turashev. Where are you from?
Speaker 12:
We are BMS journalists. What kind of journalists do you have? We wanted to talk to Igor Olegovich.
Speaker 10:
Now that was interesting. The person who spoke to us was someone who works with Turashev. It's surprising that he has an office here. There are a lot of legitimate business structures here.
Speaker 12:
They have offices here. They also have nice cars, nice housing. They are not hiding at all.
Speaker 10:
We went 700 kilometers east of Moscow, to the town where Turashev spent his childhood, Yoshkarul. After Turashev was named a major international cybercriminal, local journalist Dmitry Lyubimov wrote about him.
Speaker 6:
I spoke with his teacher, who wished to remain anonymous. Surprised, yes, and to some extent shocked. He said that this story has a negative impact on the image of the Ishkaraly IT company, since mainly local media, they mentioned, that this is an Ishkaraly resident, that he is wanted in the BR for, that is, some cybercrimes.
Well, it probably did not become as loud as it could have been.
Speaker 10:
Despite the fact that Turashev is quite officially doing business in Russia, we were never able to contact him. We deliberately did not try to contact hackers who are believed to work for the Russian special services. There are hackers connected to the authorities in all countries, but some of the accusations against Russian cybercriminals are impressive. From power outages to attacks that cause billions of dollars in damage worldwide.
The Russian government denies all accusations of supporting hackers, regularly ridiculing them as Western hysteria and Russophobia.
Speaker 3:
"For gray-haired generals, if they are true patriots, being sanctioned is like a reward."
Speaker 10:
"Like a badge of honor?"
Speaker 3:
"Yes, a badge of honor."
Speaker 10:
"Even if there is direct evidence of their guilt?"
Speaker 3:
"Evidence of what? For you, it's a cybercrime. And for them, it's gathering intelligence on the enemies of the Russian government, the Russian state."
Speaker 10:
Not only individual hackers are accused of cyberattacks commissioned by the Kremlin, but entire government agencies and even private companies. How are you? Good, thank you. Nice to meet you. We both feel the same. I like this view. Denis Baranov is the new CEO of Positive. Technologies. Denis says that he, like the rest of the IT world, was shocked by President Biden's statement in April, accusing his quite respectable company of hacking actions commissioned by the Russian government.
The subsequent sanctions forced the company to postpone its long-awaited IPO and cut it off from many Western partners and technologies. Is this a punching bag? Yes. Did you need it the day the company was sanctioned? No, this is not my way of dealing with stress. The first count of the indictment states that your company, Positive Technologies, helped Russian intelligence agencies conduct cyberattacks against the United States.
How do you respond to these accusations? Did you do this?
Speaker 11:
Given that we are a vendor, we treat all of our customers equally. That is, commercial companies buy our security products, the Ministry of Defense buys our security products. It is important to note that all of the programs and products we produce cannot be used as dual-use products.
Speaker 10:
When “dual-use” does this mean that you did not authorize them to be used for offensive purposes?
Speaker 11:
Yes. Our products are designed solely as a means of protection or as an audit tool.
Speaker 10:
The Biden administration has also criticized the annual hacker conference held by Positive Technologies, where hackers can test their skills on a mock-up of a city. US authorities claim that the conference is used by Russian intelligence agencies to recruit hackers. Is that an ATM?
Speaker 14:
Yes, we bring it to our conference and say, guys, look, there's money inside, try to get it out. And has anyone succeeded? Yes, every time, every year. Then we inform the operators about the vulnerabilities, and they fix them.
Speaker 10:
Anatoly Kovalev, Pavel Ershov, Dmitry Badin, Dmitry Dokuchaev, all these people have been to your conference and, according to American accusations, they came to recruit a new generation of hackers for the intelligence agencies. Is that true?
Speaker 11:
Positive Hack Days is the largest international conference on information security held in Russia.
Speaker 10:
Will you invite hackers to the conference next year or will you still start some kind of preliminary screening of participants?
Speaker 11:
As I said, we do not and have not invited these people, we invite everyone. And anyone can buy a ticket, like for any open conference. Under a byteticket, please. Because a byteticket...
Speaker 10:
Alexandra has taken part in many Positive Technologies conferences. According to her, this is a completely normal and exciting event.
Speaker 2:
Let's say at 6 pm, or we schedule 72 hours. Because the conference itself is usually anticipated by us.
Speaker 10:
Positive Technologies is not the first Russian cybersecurity company to be accused of being too close to the Kremlin. However, while we were in Moscow, we were shown what could happen to such a company if it chose the wrong allies. The founder of the IB Group, Ilya Sachkov, was arrested on charges of treason. Now he faces up to 20 years in prison. We drive to the company's office. During the night, the police conducted searches at the Group-IB offices.
The police even broke down the door to gain access to the servers. The Group-IB case is a mirror image of what happened to Positive Technologies, which the West accuses of working for the Russian government and complicity in hacker attacks. And Group-IB is accused of working for the West. Working in cybersecurity in Russia is very difficult. The IB Group claims its innocence and does not share details of what its leader is accused of.
Many point to Sachkov's speech, in which he publicly criticized the Russian authorities for not pursuing alleged cybercriminals, in particular Yakubets.
Speaker 7:
When the whole world says that Mr. Maxim Yakubets, a hacker who drives around Moscow in a Lamborghini with a thief's license plate, not a single Russian government agency, not the police, not the Federal Security Service, not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, simply does not respond to this. Maxim remains in Moscow, continues to drive his luxury car. And, believe me, this affects the image of a Russian company that is engaged in the export of information security.
Speaker 10:
Before leaving Russia, Andrey and I wanted to visit one more address. It is an apartment in a prestigious area of Moscow. A neighbor identified Turashev from a photograph. But even if Turashev was at home at that moment, he did not want to talk to us. I think we got as close to these people as possible. They know that we are here, that we wanted to talk.
But they don't want to talk, and I wanted to know their side of the story. The filming itself was a little weird, too, it was awkward. I felt intrusive, we went to their homes, to their offices. But I have to remind myself what they are accused of. Maybe they themselves have been hacking into private networks and computers for years and supposedly made a fortune from it, and supposedly made a fortune.
Speaker 10:
All over the world today, authorities are searching for and storming citadels where hackers have been hiding for years. They are being hunted in Ukraine, Romania, Poland, Kuwait, South Korea. Western intelligence agencies find and arrest criminals hiding in cyberspace. Sometimes they even manage to return some of the money they stole. But there is one country that treats hackers more favorably.
Speaker 9:
They are rich, they drive expensive sports cars, they behave like extravagant millionaires.
Speaker 10:
I collect information about hackers who are among the most suspect groups in the world. The US authorities believe the gang is involved in stealing money from private bank accounts and launching cyber attacks that have caused damage in excess of $100 million. Hello, I'm looking for Maxim Yakubets. I'm a BBC correspondent.
Speaker 13:
We declared him a criminal today. On what grounds? Where is the evidence of his crime? There is none.
Speaker 10:
Russians are most often accused of committing cybercrimes. There are 27 Russian citizens on the US list of most wanted hackers. If they end up outside of Russia, they will certainly be arrested, but they feel safe at home. Most of these people are believed to be either connected to the secret services or work directly for them. Some of the hackers have criminal charges against them, but they are not hiding and lead a very extravagant lifestyle.
We want to try to find them and talk to them. In particular, to ask whether Western sanctions and public accusations affect their lives.
Speaker 8:
Good morning. Thank you for coming. Today, we bring charges against a Russian citizen who, according to the Justice Department, is responsible for two of the most serious hacks and bank frauds in decades. Yakubets is a true 21st-century modern criminal who has committed cybercrimes around the world with the stroke of a key and the click of a mouse.
He has earned a spot on the FBI’s list of the world’s most wanted criminals.
Speaker 10:
He is carrying a $5 million reward, the largest ever for a hacker. U.S. and British authorities allege that his hacker group, Evil Corp., has stolen or extorted more than $100 million worldwide from victims, a private company, a charity, and even a school.
BBC Russian Service correspondent Andrey Zakharov specializes in investigating cybercrime. Together with me, he spent several months looking for traces of hackers wanted by the US. Did you find out anything about their merchant?
Speaker 12:
Well, we have two addresses. The apartments don’t belong to him, but he used to be in one of them. We know where he once officially worked for his mother’s company. He has very nice cars. He doesn’t have a business?
Speaker 10:
No business? Okay. And I’ll show you what I found. This is a video of her merchant’s wedding. Right here. They got married on the territory of a golf club. Yes, I understand. It all happened here. Right here, on the grass. The golf club where the wedding ceremony and the merchant took place is two hours’ drive from Moscow.
The club employee was happy to show us the grounds, but did not want to go into the details of the wedding itself.
Speaker 5:
First of all, it’s probably some kind of fashionable and non-standard trend. Plus, it’s the scale, it’s the nature, it’s the clean air. We have 300 hectares of land, 150 hectares are golf courses. The honeymoon suite, the Grottvillager suite, is, let’s say, our specialty, our exclusive suite.
Speaker 10:
It’s impressive. And here the newlyweds can sit down,
Speaker 5:
The champagne package, which is exactly what we strive to get into for a photo shoot for some romantic newlyweds.
Of course, there is a certain price tag, below which we cannot fall, there are certain limits, but, in general, it’s, let’s say, affordable for those who really want to have a chic and beautiful wedding.
Speaker 10:
This is probably the most famous wedding in the history of cybersecurity. The video was discussed for a long time on the Internet, and it’s a little unusual to be in this place. Many people, including the press, claimed that the wedding cost $250,000. But I was able to find out that in reality it cost at least half a million. Half a million dollars just to hold it here. We do not know who paid for the ceremony or how.
But if Yakubets did it, then it becomes clearer how part of his alleged stolen wealth is spent here in Russia. Yakubets did not answer our calls and emails. It is time to visit the address where he was registered.
Speaker 12:
Aha, it is here.
Speaker 10:
Hello, is Maxim Yakubets home? As soon as I said Maxim Yakubets, she hung the body. I think he ... I think so.
Speaker 9:
Hello! Hello!
Speaker 10:
I am looking for Maxim Yakubets. I am a BBC correspondent.
Speaker 13:
But there is no Maxim Yakubets here at all. He hasn't been here for about 15 years, I guess.
Speaker 12:
How can we contact him? We can't contact him in any way.
Speaker 13:
Wait a second. We declared him a criminal today. On what grounds? Where is the evidence of his crime? There is none.
Speaker 10:
Maxim's father told us that ever since a $5 million reward was offered for his son's arrest, he has been in constant fear of being targeted by people who want to get their hands on that kind of money. How did your son get so rich?
Speaker 13:
Who said he was rich?
Speaker 10:
A Lamborghini.
Speaker 13:
Then it's rented, but first of all, we already...
Speaker 10:
Where did he get $600,000 for the wedding?
Speaker 13:
How much? First of all, that's a bit of an exaggeration. Document. Document, look. That's an exaggeration for the period.
Speaker 10:
So you're saying that your son is neither a criminal nor a millionaire?
Speaker 13:
He is an average statistic... He is above average because he makes money. I have a job. We can afford something. And when you talk about a pawnbroker, please provide a document stating that it belongs to Yakubets Maksim.
Speaker 12:
What does Maksim do for a living then? What does he do?
Speaker 13:
Why should I tell you this so that you can talk and then they persecute him in another case?
Speaker 12:
There is my private life. Is this Maksim?
Speaker 13:
Mom.
Speaker 10:
It seems that the accusations of the American and British authorities upset you.
Speaker 13:
It upsets me, unfortunately. It upsets me because I thought America was a great country. It has turned into a very bad country. A country that is not responsible for its actions, for its words. And does not seek the truth, but looks for those to blame for this or that act. Extremely.
Speaker 10:
We asked if we could talk to Maxim, but the father said he had no contact with his son.
Speaker 12:
Well, what do you think?
Speaker 9:
Maxim Yakubets and Igor Turyshev have been distributing the computer for the past 10 years.
Speaker 10:
The US and UK claim to have enough evidence to put Yakubets behind bars. They have direct testimony from other former members of the hacker group, cybercriminal data, and even Yakubets' correspondence on Skype and email. The investigation into their cases has been going on for so long that the case even includes evidence obtained by Russian security forces in 2010, when they were still helping the US investigate cybercrimes.
The 2019 US government statement includes other names. Not only can the Evil Corp hackers now not leave Russia without fear of arrest, they are also banned from doing business with Western companies, and all their assets in the West, if they had any, are frozen. The US has imposed sanctions on a dozen Russians. Almost all of them are accused of working directly for the Kremlin. And it’s not just the US government. Last year, the EU imposed its own cyber sanctions for the first time.
And again, the lists mostly included Russians. The Kremlin calls these accusations fantasies. Most Russians have become so accustomed to Western sanctions that they don’t pay attention to them.
But Russian cybersecurity experts are outraged by these actions. Alexandra Antipina is a professional white hat hacker. She hacks computer systems to find and eliminate vulnerabilities. Her second passion is motorsports.
Speaker 2:
At first, I thought that information security could bring adrenaline, but in fact it turned out to be more of a stressful activity, because there is responsibility. When you drive, you can crash, but it will be your fault. If you make a mistake in security, then other people will suffer too.
Speaker 10:
Like many other hackers I know, Alexander says that she got into the world of cybersecurity through computer games.
Speaker 2:
If I want to say "white hat hacker" about myself, I will not say so, because the word "hacker" is already a very negative word for us. In particular, for me it is some kind of association with some kind of criminals. Therefore, of course...
Speaker 10:
And what do you think about the stereotypical image of a Russian hacker?
Speaker 2:
Of course, it is offensive. Why are there no other hackers from other countries? Why from ours? I am surrounded by security experts, people with education, people who are doing useful work.
Speaker 1:
The long-awaited summit between US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is starting in Geneva.
Speaker 10:
Cybercrime was one of the main topics at the Biden-Putin summit in Geneva. President Biden mentioned the recent ransomware attack on the US oil pipeline network infrastructure, which led to a fuel shortage. "Responsible countries must take action against cybercriminals who commit extortion on their territory." The negotiations have not yet yielded any noticeable results.
Lilia Yaparova, an investigative journalist with an independent Russian news outlet.
Speaker 3:
"Maxim Yakubets became the uncle of a high-ranking FSB officer. After that, he began to cooperate with the FSB."
Speaker 10:
"How do you know?"
Speaker 3:
"From the US government documents. Maxim Yakubets and all his accomplices from Evil Corp have been declared enemies of the state. One of my sources, a former FSB officer, told me that he personally tried to recruit Yakubets. This is a fairly common practice in Russia.
For the FSB, a recruited hacker is more valuable than a hacker in prison.
Speaker 10:
The way the man considered Yakubets' right hand lives is another eloquent testimony to Russia's disagreement with the accusations of the American authorities.
Speaker 9:
Igor Turashev, known as Enki, also known as Ninjo-2, is a close associate of the merchant and works as a system administrator.
Speaker 10:
We found Turashev's business structure registered in the Federation Tower in Moscow City. Are three of his companies registered here? Yes. The receptionist said that there were no internal phone lines to the office, but she found a mobile number for one of the companies. After quite a long time, someone picked up the phone.
Hello, I'm looking for Igor Turashev. Where are you from?
Speaker 12:
We are BMS journalists. What kind of journalists do you have? We wanted to talk to Igor Olegovich.
Speaker 10:
Now that was interesting. The person who spoke to us was someone who works with Turashev. It's surprising that he has an office here. There are a lot of legitimate business structures here.
Speaker 12:
They have offices here. They also have nice cars, nice housing. They are not hiding at all.
Speaker 10:
We went 700 kilometers east of Moscow, to the town where Turashev spent his childhood, Yoshkarul. After Turashev was named a major international cybercriminal, local journalist Dmitry Lyubimov wrote about him.
Speaker 6:
I spoke with his teacher, who wished to remain anonymous. Surprised, yes, and to some extent shocked. He said that this story has a negative impact on the image of the Ishkaraly IT company, since mainly local media, they mentioned, that this is an Ishkaraly resident, that he is wanted in the BR for, that is, some cybercrimes.
Well, it probably did not become as loud as it could have been.
Speaker 10:
Despite the fact that Turashev is quite officially doing business in Russia, we were never able to contact him. We deliberately did not try to contact hackers who are believed to work for the Russian special services. There are hackers connected to the authorities in all countries, but some of the accusations against Russian cybercriminals are impressive. From power outages to attacks that cause billions of dollars in damage worldwide.
The Russian government denies all accusations of supporting hackers, regularly ridiculing them as Western hysteria and Russophobia.
Speaker 3:
"For gray-haired generals, if they are true patriots, being sanctioned is like a reward."
Speaker 10:
"Like a badge of honor?"
Speaker 3:
"Yes, a badge of honor."
Speaker 10:
"Even if there is direct evidence of their guilt?"
Speaker 3:
"Evidence of what? For you, it's a cybercrime. And for them, it's gathering intelligence on the enemies of the Russian government, the Russian state."
Speaker 10:
Not only individual hackers are accused of cyberattacks commissioned by the Kremlin, but entire government agencies and even private companies. How are you? Good, thank you. Nice to meet you. We both feel the same. I like this view. Denis Baranov is the new CEO of Positive. Technologies. Denis says that he, like the rest of the IT world, was shocked by President Biden's statement in April, accusing his quite respectable company of hacking actions commissioned by the Russian government.
The subsequent sanctions forced the company to postpone its long-awaited IPO and cut it off from many Western partners and technologies. Is this a punching bag? Yes. Did you need it the day the company was sanctioned? No, this is not my way of dealing with stress. The first count of the indictment states that your company, Positive Technologies, helped Russian intelligence agencies conduct cyberattacks against the United States.
How do you respond to these accusations? Did you do this?
Speaker 11:
Given that we are a vendor, we treat all of our customers equally. That is, commercial companies buy our security products, the Ministry of Defense buys our security products. It is important to note that all of the programs and products we produce cannot be used as dual-use products.
Speaker 10:
When “dual-use” does this mean that you did not authorize them to be used for offensive purposes?
Speaker 11:
Yes. Our products are designed solely as a means of protection or as an audit tool.
Speaker 10:
The Biden administration has also criticized the annual hacker conference held by Positive Technologies, where hackers can test their skills on a mock-up of a city. US authorities claim that the conference is used by Russian intelligence agencies to recruit hackers. Is that an ATM?
Speaker 14:
Yes, we bring it to our conference and say, guys, look, there's money inside, try to get it out. And has anyone succeeded? Yes, every time, every year. Then we inform the operators about the vulnerabilities, and they fix them.
Speaker 10:
Anatoly Kovalev, Pavel Ershov, Dmitry Badin, Dmitry Dokuchaev, all these people have been to your conference and, according to American accusations, they came to recruit a new generation of hackers for the intelligence agencies. Is that true?
Speaker 11:
Positive Hack Days is the largest international conference on information security held in Russia.
Speaker 10:
Will you invite hackers to the conference next year or will you still start some kind of preliminary screening of participants?
Speaker 11:
As I said, we do not and have not invited these people, we invite everyone. And anyone can buy a ticket, like for any open conference. Under a byteticket, please. Because a byteticket...
Speaker 10:
Alexandra has taken part in many Positive Technologies conferences. According to her, this is a completely normal and exciting event.
Speaker 2:
Let's say at 6 pm, or we schedule 72 hours. Because the conference itself is usually anticipated by us.
Speaker 10:
Positive Technologies is not the first Russian cybersecurity company to be accused of being too close to the Kremlin. However, while we were in Moscow, we were shown what could happen to such a company if it chose the wrong allies. The founder of the IB Group, Ilya Sachkov, was arrested on charges of treason. Now he faces up to 20 years in prison. We drive to the company's office. During the night, the police conducted searches at the Group-IB offices.
The police even broke down the door to gain access to the servers. The Group-IB case is a mirror image of what happened to Positive Technologies, which the West accuses of working for the Russian government and complicity in hacker attacks. And Group-IB is accused of working for the West. Working in cybersecurity in Russia is very difficult. The IB Group claims its innocence and does not share details of what its leader is accused of.
Many point to Sachkov's speech, in which he publicly criticized the Russian authorities for not pursuing alleged cybercriminals, in particular Yakubets.
Speaker 7:
When the whole world says that Mr. Maxim Yakubets, a hacker who drives around Moscow in a Lamborghini with a thief's license plate, not a single Russian government agency, not the police, not the Federal Security Service, not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, simply does not respond to this. Maxim remains in Moscow, continues to drive his luxury car. And, believe me, this affects the image of a Russian company that is engaged in the export of information security.
Speaker 10:
Before leaving Russia, Andrey and I wanted to visit one more address. It is an apartment in a prestigious area of Moscow. A neighbor identified Turashev from a photograph. But even if Turashev was at home at that moment, he did not want to talk to us. I think we got as close to these people as possible. They know that we are here, that we wanted to talk.
But they don't want to talk, and I wanted to know their side of the story. The filming itself was a little weird, too, it was awkward. I felt intrusive, we went to their homes, to their offices. But I have to remind myself what they are accused of. Maybe they themselves have been hacking into private networks and computers for years and supposedly made a fortune from it, and supposedly made a fortune.
