Several thousand pages of technical documents in Russian, detailing a vast Internet control system and digital weapons: for the first time, a consortium of journalists led by German investigative medium Paper Trail Media has gotten a behind-the-scenes look at access to a major supplier digital weapons for the Russian security services.
This private company called “Vulkan” has secret defense accreditations. It is one of the major vendors commissioned by several Russian intelligence agencies to develop tools to facilitate their “cyber” activities – from online propaganda to sometimes destructive computer attacks, including espionage. These internal documents were sent to the daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which shared them with Paper Trails Media, by a source who wanted to show that “the GRU [renseignement militaire] and the FSB [sécurité intérieure] stand behind this company.
In fact, Vulkan has developed various “systems” for entities linked to these two Russian intelligence agencies, according to documents obtained by Le Monde and Paper Trails Media’s other partners (The Guardian, The Washington Post, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Der mirror…) might have consult. Notably, among the clients mentioned in the agreements or payment slips is military unit 74455, better known as “Sandworm”, the team of GRU hackers accused of being the origin of the “MacronLeaks”, an attempt to get involved in the French presidential elections to interfere from 2017. The 22280 units (“special programs”) of the Russian army or the 33949 intelligence unit Russian Exterior, the SVR, are also named as customers.
Also read: Article reserved for our “Skan” subscribers, the cyber-attack preparedness tool developed by Vulkan
At the very beginning of the 2010s, Vulkan was linked to the hacking operations carried out by the SVR, according to information gathered by Google’s Threat Analysis Group, the company’s computer security service, which brings together some of the best specialists in the world of topic. He was able to link the company to the sending of booby-trapped emails spreading the MiniDuke malware used exclusively by the SVR.
A complete internet surveillance system project
Internal documents also show that Vulkan works closely with the Rostov-on-Don Radiocommunications Research Institute (RNIIRS), a key link in the Russian military-industrial complex that develops many projects for the FSB’s Center for Technical and Operational Measures. responsible for electronic surveillance.
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