In front of everyone: data leaks become a threat to national security for Russia

no more plums

Last weekend, the archives surfaced on one of the closed Telegram channels, which, according to the statement, published leaked databases containing personal information about 600 FSB officers and 65 employees of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet. information security company T. Hunter.

The first base includes the person’s full name, date and place of birth, passport data, registration address, workplace address, phone number, and more. In the second archive – the person’s full name, rank, place of service, place of birth, registration address, phone number, other passport data.

The correspondent of “socialbites.ca” managed to get number six from the database. None of the interlocutors confirmed or denied their participation in the FSB or the Navy. Some responded with names listed in the database and answered questions with questions or hung up when they heard a question about participation in public service.

Gazeta.ru also managed to find out that at the end of March, a database with information about FSB officers was published by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Evidence of early publications of a table with data on personnel of the Russian Navy was not found.

Said Tabaev, an expert in the investigation of cybercrime at T.Hunter, noted in a meeting with socialbites.ca that the claim was impossible until the data leak was confirmed by the FSB and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. reliability of information listed in databases. He also noted that he did not consider the data leak from government agencies unbelievable.

“Since the beginning of 2022, we have encountered a number of leaks on darknet and Telegram channels containing information about police officers, the FSB and the military.

Of varying degrees of complexity and gaining unauthorized access to cloud database management systems, insiders… All these are common reasons for such archives to be posted on the darknet and Telegram,” said the expert.

Also, according to him, published databases can only be officially fresh. In fact, they may contain information from previous leaks.

Kaspersky Lab also refrained from validating the databases discussed. However, the company agreed with T.Hunter that not all leaks are based on real events – many databases are compiled from old publications. Also, according to the company, recent reports of data leaks turned out to be fake. This is especially true for reports that government agencies have compromised their data.

“If we talk about leaks related to government agencies, the percentage of fakes is quite high. As a rule, malicious people publish data that is often publicly available or that does not really concern the named organization, with great repercussions” – said Kaspersky Lab.

On the contrary, the share of fakes in such leaks is relatively small, about 20% of all messages, according to T. Hunter’s Tabaev.

At the time of publication, the FSB and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation did not respond to socialbites.ca’s requests.

Open Threat

Irina Zinovkina, consulting director of InfoWatch Group, believes that data leakage from military and intelligence officers poses a potential threat to national security and is more dangerous than data leakage from commercial organizations nationwide.

A similar view is shared by Said Tabaev from T. Hunter. According to him, all employees of law enforcement agencies are “confidential carriers” – persons admitted to information that to some extent constitutes state secrets.

“Dissemination of military personal data can entail the risk of exposure and gaining unauthorized access to state secrets. So the protection of secret carriers is a priority for the state,” said Tabaev.

Fedor Muzalevsky, director of the technical department of RTM Group, spoke similarly.

“Data leaks from military and law enforcement are much more dangerous than leaks from commercial companies, as they can only provide information about key strategic decision makers. Leaks in particular can provide information about the whereabouts of such individuals,” he said.

Ilya Tikhonov, head of the Compliance and Audit areas of the Softline information security department, added that it is possible to influence the military and their loved ones, as well as the activities of law enforcement, thanks to the data obtained and social engineering. agencies.

risky business

Muzalevsky warned that the disclosure and dissemination of personal information of intelligence officials and the military has consequences not only for the state. According to the expert, if an Internet user or a reporter publishes or even reposts a leak containing information about military or security forces of an officer rank, he may face criminal liability and punishment for treason.

Ilya Tikhonov spoke similarly.

“Disclosure and dissemination of personal data belonging to law enforcement officials is regulated in articles 183 and 320 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and is a criminal offense,” said the expert.

“Unlawful receipt and disclosure of information constituting a commercial, tax or banking secret” (Article 183 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and “Disclosure of information about security measures applied to an officer of a law enforcement or regulatory agency” (Criminal Article 320 of the Law of the Russian Federation) punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment.

In turn, T. Hunter expert Said Tabaev added that he and his colleagues have already identified the administrators of the Telegram channel, on which data about FSB officers and Navy employees appear. According to him, data about them was transferred to law enforcement agencies.

Telegram distributes its databases, possibly with employees of the FSB and the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy – this was pointed out to socialbites.ca by information security specialists from T.Hunter. Although the fact that the information systems of the power structures of the Russian Federation has been compromised has not been proven, information security experts do not exclude that the databases in question may have been leaked as a result of hacking or insider work. Experts find such leaks dangerous, not least because military and intelligence officers are carriers of classified information that could potentially be found through social engineering methods when they have personal data in their hands.



Source: Gazeta

Previous article
Next article

Popular

More from author

Kiev announced that difficult negotiations were held with Warsaw regarding the border blockade 23:32

Negotiations between Ukraine and Poland in Warsaw on steps to abolish the common border were difficult and the meeting was not prepared. Ukrainian...

A lawsuit was filed against Makfa by the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office 23:42

The Russian Chief Public Prosecutor's Office filed a lawsuit against JSC Makfa, the country's largest pasta producer, with the aim of converting the company's...

Russian caught by police while carrying drugs under the guise of distributing food 23:48

Lipetsk police on the M-4 Don highway caught a 23-year-old drug courier pretending to be a food distributor. Report this"MIA Media" According to the...

Air attack alert issued in various regions of Ukraine 23:40

An air raid alert was issued in seven regions of Ukraine. This is due to data published on the official source to warn...