Captain Flint24
Cybercriminal Alexei Stroganov aka Flint24 and his accomplices demanded their release from prison in exchange for Russian aid. Posted this last week seen On Mash Telegram channel. The hackers’ lawyers plan to ask the court to change the sentence at the next hearing of the case, which will be held from June 13-19.
Flint24 and its accomplices were arrested in March 2020 for multiple cybercrimes related to embezzlement of funds, primarily in Europe and the United States. A group of attackers has been dealing with carding for many years – theft, resale and use of bank card data for personal enrichment. In early 2021, most of the participants were found guilty and sentenced to several years in prison. Specifically, considering the materials of the Tverskoy District Court in Moscow, Stroganov was charged with the illegal circulation of means of payment (Article 187, part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). This offense is punishable by imprisonment for up to two years.
The majority of information security experts socialbites.ca spoke to were skeptical of both the Stroganov group’s request and the idea of using hackers to defend the country as part of cyberwarfare in general.
Earlier, the hacker community Anonymous openly opposed Russia and declared cyber war against Russia. A short time later, the website of the state television RT, broadcasting abroad, stopped working. Russian internet providers and government websites were hacked. In particular, the pages of Roskomnadzor, Russian Pension Fund (PFR), Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) and Crimean information resources. Large Russian companies were also subjected to mass attacks: Gazprom, Lukoil, Norilsk Nickel and Yandex.
Igor Bederov, head of the information and analytical research department at T.Hunter, expressed his skepticism about Stroganov’s petition, saying that hackers are one of the lowest castes in the world of cybercriminals and are closer to scammers than hackers. In his view, Flint24 and its accomplices cannot do much for the state as part of preventing the same espionage or hacker attacks.
“Real hackers with really useful skills – finding and exploiting unique vulnerabilities, espionage, devastating impact on complex IT systems – make up 0.2% to 0.3% of respondents in the group of so-called Russian-speaking cybercriminals. All the rest are scammers, card dealers, DDoSers, extortionists and other low-skilled criminals who are often mistakenly called hackers,” says Bederov.
Kaspersky Lab’s chief expert, Sergey Golovanov, is confident that no matter what skills hackers have, they cannot be used in the public interest and cannot be trusted in cybersecurity matters.
“I think the only acceptable way to communicate with them is to go out with their accomplices during investigations. But in any case, do not count on more serious tasks and do not give access to classified information, ”the director said.
Pavel Sitnikov, an independent information security researcher and hacker who declassified himself in 2020, expressed a completely different perspective in an interview with socialbites.ca. According to him, even Flint24’s skills could potentially be used for the benefit of the state.
“Flint24 specializes in illegal fundraising. Could such a skill be useful to the Russian cyber army? I think yes. Personally, I once received finance-oriented orders from the security forces. It was during the political conflict in Ukraine, involving Petro Poroshenko. At that time, the goal was precisely foreign accounts – it was necessary to withdraw $10,000.
According to Sitnikov, Flint24 and its accomplices have specific knowledge of the structure of the American financial infrastructure. If the Russian Federation is faced with the task of hitting this sector of the United States, the request of the cybercriminals discussed can be heard and taken into account.
To the service “Prikodenny”
Although the majority of socialbites.ca’s interlocutors criticize the idea of recruiting convicted cybercriminals to work for the state, some noted that it is an unspoken practice in Russia and other countries by special services to use hackers.
“The criminal elements of society have always and everywhere been used by the government to achieve their ends. This applies to both mafia and hackers. Bederov uses the services of special services for espionage, devastating attacks on IT systems of target companies and leaves no obvious traces from the government,” said Bederov.
According to him, the rare professionals who most likely make up less than one percent of the total number of the hacker community are already members of pro-government ART groups. [advanced persistent threat, термин в кибербезопасности, обозначающий противника, который представляет высокий уровень угрозы] or regular intelligence officers.
Pavel Sitnikov spoke similarly. According to him, even in the community of cybercriminals, there is no one who sees the faces of members of ART groups and does not know their names.
“It is generally accepted that they depend on law enforcement. Are there ART groups in Russia or not? The question is rhetoric. They are in all great powers,” he said.
In turn, the head of the product promotion department of the security code company, Pavel Korostelev, added that both the special services and the armed forces of different countries have specialists engaged in espionage and cyber attacks – these people are called hackers in everyday life.
“In general, the use of cyberattack capabilities is considered normal. Both the special services and the armed forces have specially trained people. These are needed either to obtain some data or to disable certain information systems for the enemy at the right time. Such units exist quite formally in different countries, they do not hide it, ”said the author.
Bederov spoke similarly. According to him, although there is no official state structure called “cyber army” in Russia, there are various special units of the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation operating in the digital environment. nominally it can be considered a Russian cyber soldier.
“These experts deal with intelligence, incident prevention, and more,” he said.
As for the international practice of using convicted cybercriminals as a source for the country’s potential for cyberattacks, here, according to experts, Ukraine is most likely the lead.
“According to unofficial data, it was convicted Ukrainian citizens who participated in the cyberwarfare with the Russian Federation and were probably involved in a number of government website hacks in recent months,” said Fyodor Mazulevsky, director of RTM Group. technical department (specializes in legal issues of information security).
According to him, this decision of Ukraine, if realized, is proof that the country’s regular forces are completely incapable.
Source: Gazeta
