The arrest of Ruslan Stoyanov , the head of computer incidents investigation at Kaspersky, is the result of various claims about him passing the state secrets to US companies. The arrest happened back in December.
His arrest has followed various accusations that are made as long ago as 2010 by the Russian businessman Pavel Vrublevsky, who is the founder of Russian online payments company ChronoPay. This suggests that Stoyanov and others had passed on various “secrets” to US companies.
“I can confirm Chronopay to be part of this case. In 2010, we have provided the FSB [which is the Russian security services] and other very important Russian agencies with the evidence which at least one FSB employee, and several other people, were involved in this treason,” Vrublevsky told the Reuters.
Vrublevsky also claims that Stoyanov has passed on information to various other companies, but has only named Verisign.
But, Verisign denied that they handled or passed-on anything which could be described as a secret. But, Verisign’s iDefense unit has compiled dossiers on cyber crime for different clients including the private firms and the government agencies which include the US intelligence services, however, it says their research did not contain any classified information, according to Reuters.
“Nothing like the arrangement as described by Pavel Vrublevsky ever took place,” Kimberly Zenz, a former analyst at Verisign’s iDefense unit who knows Stoyanov, told Reuters.
Verisign’s denials suggest that “secrets” which Stoyanov was accused of passing are either information about security flaws in various software, or even information about individuals or groups involved in the cyber-crime. Being an independent consultant at the time, Stoyanov would probably have been expected to be paid for his work for Verisign.
Stoyanov joined Kaspersky in 2012 following a period as a consultant after he’d left the Russian police cyber crime unit. However, Kaspersky has refused to comment.
