Russia arrests prominent cyber security executive

Russian authorities have arrested Ilya Sachkov, the founder and chief executive of cyber stability agency Group-IB, accusing him of collaborating with western intelligence agencies and treason, in accordance to stories.

RTVI, a Russian Television set station, described on Tuesday 28 September that the company’s offices in Moscow experienced been raided and that Sachkov had been detained for a period of time of two months beneath Russian regulation. In accordance to information agency TASS, he denies the rates, which carry a attainable 20-calendar year jail term.

In a statement, a Group-IB spokesperson stated: “At the instant, the attorneys of Group-IB… are analyzing the assertion by Moscow’s Lefortovo courtroom of September 28, 2021 with regard to Group-IB CEO and founder Ilya Sachkov.

“Group-IB’s workforce is confident in the innocence of the company’s CEO and his enterprise integrity.

“Group-IB’s communications group refrains from commenting on the fees brought and the situation of the prison case due to the ongoing procedural pursuits,” they included. “Group-IB co-founder Dmitry Volkov will presume the leadership of the firm in the around long run.”

Team-IB also confirmed that its places of work experienced been raided but claimed the motives for this search were being unclear. It said its other offices remained open up, and that its functions ended up unaffected.

“The decentralised infrastructure of Group-IB allows us to keep our customer’s information secure, keep small business operations and function without interruption throughout our workplaces in Russia and all over the entire world,” claimed the spokesperson.

Started in 2003 while Sachkov was a university student at Bauman Moscow Condition Technological College, Group-IB specialises in threat-searching and cyber intelligence services.

It often operates together with organisations these types of as Europol and Interpol, is recommended as a cyber companies company by the Organisation for Stability and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Sachkov had grow to be effectively recognized as a technological know-how leader, and has beforehand been feted as just one of Russia’s much more distinguished entrepreneurs, showing up together with president Vladimir Putin on various situations.

Additional recently, on the other hand, he seems to have distanced himself from the country’s increasingly authoritarian regime, and in 2018, moved the company’s headquarters to Singapore, citing a will need to assure the company’s independence.