FSB arrests Humpty Dumpty leader

The Federal Security Service has arrested the founder of the Humpty Dumpty website, Vladimir Lewis, Anikeev, Rosbalt reports citing its own sources. The journalist was detained at the time of his arrival in St. Petersburg from Ukraine more than three months ago, at the end of October 2016. Anikeev was taken to Moscow, where he was charged under part 3 of article 272 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Unlawful access to computer information by a group of persons”. Founder of Humpty Dumpty is accused of breaking into and distributing correspondence of the assistant to the president of the Russian Federation Vladislav Surkov.

“The operation was the result of long work. A difficult operational combination was played to lure Lewis from Ukraine, where he was not going to return from, ”a FSB source told Rosbalt.

Journalists attribute the arrest of Anikeev to the recent detention of Sergei Mikhailov, deputy head of the FSB’s center for information security, who was charged with high treason.

According to the version of Kommersant, detained Mikhailov for receiving bribes from foreign companies (possibly Microsoft and Cisco). In exchange, Mikhailov was supposed to lobby the interests of companies in terms of counteracting the adoption of the law “on the security of critical information infrastructure of the Russian Federation” or, as it is called in the media, the law “on cyber attacks”. As part of the same trial, one of the top managers of Kaspersky Lab Ruslan Stoyanov was detained, who could act as an intermediary between Mikhailov and foreign companies.

However, the Mikhailov case may be even more confusing. Anikeev immediately after the arrest began to cooperate with the investigation. Often in his testimony appeared previously detained Mikhailov as a person associated with the Humpty Dumpty team. It should be noted that the arrest of Mikhailov and the top manager of Kaspersky Lab was made almost a month after the detention of Anikeev. In addition to Mikhailov, his comrade-in-arms and the “right hand”, also an employee of the TsIB FSB, Dmitry Dokuchaev were arrested.

The FSB believes that in the summer of 2016, the Humpty Dumpty team had a “curator” whom Mikhailov could play. After that, the site team began to carry out increasingly serious attacks and plums of information, the contents of which could no longer be called "harmless" or "entertaining." According to the FSB, the Humpty Dumpty team began to act as a hacker group and, in addition to public “sinks,” began to trade in information obtained: during successful attacks, part of the data after sorting was “merged” on the site, and part was put up for sale for BTC, which subsequently cashed in Ukraine.

At the same time, information was obtained in a very sophisticated way. The intended victim of hacking was monitored. In a public place, a false Wi-Fi network was deployed, to which, unknowingly, the target was connected. If mobile data interception was required, a fake mobile phone cell was used.

The new data on the ongoing arrests even more compromised the activities of the TsIB FSB, in which Mikhailov and the structure were often equated.

“Mikhailov is an excellent specialist. Best in the business. We can say that the CIB is Mikhailov. But he played too much, ”the source of Rosbalt in the FSB said.

The data obtained by counterintelligence may lead to a review of the structure of the FSB FSB. For the IT sector, this threatens to destroy all existing ties and contacts with the state, the restoration of which will require a lot of time and effort. At the same time, there is a tendency to create restrictive bills for the IT sphere (the package of laws of Yarovaya-Ozerov, the law on cyber attacks, the law on critical infrastructure). If, due to the events described, the relationship between the IT sector and the state is seriously disrupted, then there may be a “skew”: the business will not be able to defend its own interests before the power and other departments, which will lead to unjustified, and in some places dangerous dangerous “tightening of the screws” .

According to information from the press secretary of the Lefortovo court of Moscow, Ekaterina Krasnova, the court authorized the detention of Anikeev until March 8.