What's behind the case of the former Russian cyber troop?

 

As VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info have discovered, the state prosecutor has requested a 12-year prison sentence for Igor Voroshilov, a former employee of the FSB's Department of Military Counterintelligence (DVKR), who oversaw the activities of Alexei Stroganov's (Flint) hacker group. They also want to strip him of his rank and fine him 3 million rubles. Flint is being asked to serve 18 years in prison.

The most interesting thing about Stroganov and his handler's offense is that Flint's group operated at the state level and, in essence, acted as Russia's cyber troops. Stroganov was awarded a certificate from the Director of the FSB for ensuring Russia's cybersecurity and a letter of gratitude from Vladimir Putin for ensuring cybersecurity during the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. His hacking activities were also carried out within the framework of state mandates.

 

The group's history of cooperation with the FSB begins with the former head of the FSB's Information Security Center, Sergei Mikhailov (later convicted of treason).

 

Mikhailov at one time took all more or less reputable hacker groups in Russia under his wing. Among them was the group of the previously convicted Alexei Stroganov (Flint). After Mikhailov's arrest, the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Federation (DVKR) decided to take Flint's group under its wing as a "combat unit" with representatives in the former Soviet Union and Europe. Voroshilov became the curator's representative, and this time under a specific program—a program of financial warfare with the West. The program included many points. According to the Cheka-OGPU, this included the maximum discrediting of VISA and MasterCard cards, as well as American Express and Discover. A sub-point included creating favorable conditions for clients to switch to MIR and UnionPay cards (apparently, the Chinese side may have had a connection to the "project"). There was also a clause about creating maximum financial stress on Western banks, payment systems, etc., and pushing residents into the shadow economy.

 

Access to Flint's group's websites was granted only to foreign citizens from foreign IP addresses. Even the website's technical support was provided in English. Access within Russia was blocked. The compromised cards were primarily those of American banks.

 

Flint's group was effectively officially operating within the counterintelligence system, serving as a branch of the very same cyber troops whose mission included "working" with the financial sector.

 

It's clear that pure "service to the Motherland" was not at issue; this entire hacking operation, under the protection of the Russian FSB, brought Flint and his team, as well as his handlers, enormous profits.

 

And in mid-2019, events occurred that may have put an end to Flint's group. That summer, US President Donald Trump met with Putin at the G20 summit. It is known that some closed negotiations subsequently took place between the Russian and American sides, during which the latter passed on information about the members of Flint's group and their handlers. It's unclear what the US promised in return, but unexpectedly, the very highest levels of Russia decided to proceed with the materials.

 

As a result, all members of Flint's team were arrested. Their handler, Voroshilov, was also detained in Vladikavkaz. His story is a complete mystery. Since he was an active FSB officer at the time of the events and his arrest, the military investigation was supposed to be conducted. However, the case was handled by the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation claimed that they had no evidence that Voroshilov was an active FSB officer, and therefore there were no grounds for transferring the case to the Main Military Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. However, in the final version of the indictment, the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation listed Igor Voroshilov... as an FSB officer. But with a host of caveats. They claimed that Voroshilov committed the crime outside his place of service and not in the performance of his duties.

 

By the way, it appears the Americans have fulfilled their promise. At least, even Yevgeny Prigozhin failed to resolve the situation with Flint. At one point, he gained virtually unlimited power to recruit prisoners for war. According to the Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info, the owner of the Wagner PMC tried to recruit Flint and part of his team to bolster his personal cyber force. But he was categorically refused.