The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has officially denied the reports of some Russian and Western media about the involvement of the recently arrested senior officers of the service in the coordination of activities of Shaltay Boltay, the recently liquidated hacker group in Russia.
Ivan Dragunov, a spokesman of press-service of FSB, told SC Media UK that the arrest of Sergei Mikhailov and Dmitry Dokuchaev, senior officers of the center of information security of FSB and their accomplice Ruslan Stoyanov, the former head of the investigation department of computer incidents of Kaspersky Lab, on the suspicions of treason and cooperation with CIA, has nothing to do with the current investigations of the activities of Shaltay Boltay and their attacks on the websites on top officials from the Russian Presidential Administration.
In the case of Shaltay Boltay, according to FSB, investigators currently continue to check the involvement of the arrested hackers in breaking into the computers of senior Russian officials, and in particular the top manager of the Russian Sberbank, Evgeny Kislyakov, and Timur Prokopenko, deputy chief of the Office for Domestic Policy of the Russian President.
In the meantime, the official statements of FSB are contrary to recent comments of certain members of Shaltay Boltay. As Alexander Glazastikov, a member of the group, who currently works and lives in Estonia, told SC through his representative, the activities of the group were coordinated by curators from the Russian special services, and in particular the FSB.
Glazastikov said that amid the fears of criminal proceedings in Russia, the group received instructions from FSB that they will contact them in the case of their needs of any biased article or publication.
According to Glazastikov, under the terms of the agreement FSB has a veto on the publication of any information by the hacker group, regularly organising leaks of certain information through the website of Shaltay Boltay. In exchange for cooperation, members of the group received protection from FSB, he said.
In November last year, the Lefortovo court of Moscow sanctioned the arrest of the alleged leader of the hacker group, Vladimir Anikeev, and two possible accomplices, Alexander Filinov and Constantine Teplyakov.
