Leaked chats show alleged Russian spy seeking hacking tools
MOSCOW Six years ago, a Russian speaking cybersecurity researcher received an unsolicited email from Kate S. Milton.
Milton claimed to work for the Moscow based anti virus firm Kaspersky. In an exchange that began in halting English and quickly switched to Russian, Milton said she was impressed by the researcher work on exploits the digital lock picks used by hackers to break into vulnerable systems and wanted to be copied in on buy canada goose jacket any new ones that the researcher came across.
almost always have all the top end exploits, Milton said, after complimenting the researcher about a post to her website, where she often dissected malicious software.
buy canada goose jacket that our contact isn one sided, I offer you my help cheap canada goose uk analyzing malicious viruses, and as I get new samples I share, Milton continued. do you think? researcher who works as a security engineer and runs the malware sharing site on the side always had a pretty good idea that Milton wasn who she said she was. Last month, Canada Goose Online she got confirmation via an FBI indictment. presidential election. It identified S. Milton as an alias for military intelligence officer Ivan Yermakov, one of 12 Russian spies accused of breaking into the Democratic National Committee and publishing its emails in an attempt to influence the 2016 election. buy canada goose jacket
The researcher, who gave her exchanges with Milton to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said she wasn pleased to learn she had been corresponding with an alleged Russian spy. But she wasn particularly surprised either.
canada goose clearance area of research is a magnet for suspicious people, she canada goose uk outlet said. canada goose clearance
The researcher and Milton Canada Goose Jackets engaged in a handful of conversations between April 2011 and March 2012. But even their sparse exchanges, along with a few digital breadcrumbs left behind by Yermakov and his colleagues, offer insight into the men behind the keyboards http://www.mycanadagoosejacket.org at Russia Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU.
It isn unusual for messages like Milton to come in out of the blue, especially in the relatively small world of independent malware analysts.
canada goose coats was nothing particularly unusual in her approach, the researcher said. had very similar interactions with amateur and Canada Goose Outlet professional researchers from different countries. pair corresponded for a while. Milton shared a canada goose store piece of malicious code at one point and sent over a hacking related YouTube video at another, but contact fizzled out after a few months. canada goose coats
canada goose Then, the following year, Milton got back in touch. canada goose
been all work, work, work, Milton said by way of apology, before quickly getting to the point. She needed new lock picks.
buy canada goose jacket cheap know that you can help, she wrote. working on a new project and I really need contacts that can provide information canada goose clearance sale or canada goose uk shop have contacts with people who have new exploits. I am willing to pay for them. particular, Milton canada goose outlet said she wanted information on a recently disclosed vulnerability codenamed CVE 2012 0002 a critical Microsoft flaw that could allow hackers to remotely compromise some Windows computers. Milton had heard that someone had already cobbled together a working exploit. buy canada goose jacket cheap
canada goose deals The researcher demurred. The trade in exploits for use by spies, cheap Canada Goose cops, surveillance companies or criminals can be a seedy one. canada goose deals
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cheap Canada Goose She politely declined and never heard from Milton again. cheap Canada Goose
Canada Goose Jackets Milton Twitter account whose profile photo features star Evangeline Lilly is long dormant. The last few messages carry urgent, awkwardly worded appeals for canada goose coats on sale exploits or canada goose black friday sale tips about vulnerabilities. Canada Goose Jackets
me find detailed description CVE 2011 0978, one message reads, referring to a bug in PHP, a coding language often used for websites. a work exploit, the message continues, ending with a smiley face.
Canada Goose online It isn clear whether uk canada goose Yermakov was working for the GRU when he first masqueraded as Kate S. Milton. Milton Twitter silence starting in 2011 and the reference to a project in 2012 might canada goose coats hint at a new job. Canada Goose online
In any case, Yermakov wasn working for the anti buy canada goose jacket cheap virus firm Kaspersky not then and not ever, the company said in a statement.
canada goose black friday sale don know why he allegedly presented himself as an employee, the statement said. canada goose black friday sale
canadian goose jacket Messages sent by the AP to Kate S. Milton Gmail account were not returned. canadian goose jacket
canada goose clearance sale The exchanges between Milton (Yermakov) and the researcher could be read in different ways. canada goose clearance sale
They might show that the GRU was trying to cultivate people in the information security community with an eye toward getting the latest exploits as soon as possible, said Cosimo Mortola, a threat intelligence analyst at the cybersecurity company FireEye.
It also possible that Yermakov might have initially worked as an Canada Goose online independent hacker, hustling for spy tools uk canada goose outlet before being hired by Canada Goose Coats On Sale Russian military intelligence a theory that makes sense to defence and foreign policy analyst Pavel Felgenhauer.
Canada Goose Parka cyber, you have to hire boys that understand computers and canada goose everything the old spies at the GRU don understand, Felgenhauer said. find a good hacker, you recruit him and give him some training and a rank a lieutenant or something and then he will do the same stuff. leak of Milton conversations shows how the glare of publicity is revealing elements of the canada goose uk black friday hackers methods and perhaps even hints about their private lives. Canada Goose Parka
Canada Goose sale It possible, for example, that Yermakov and many of his colleagues commute to work through the arched entrance to Komsomolsky 22, a military base in the heart of Moscow that serves as home to the alleged hacker Unit 26165. Photos shot from inside show it a well kept facility, with a czarist era facade, manicured lawns, flower beds and shady trees in a central courtyard. Canada Goose sale
canada goose store The AP and others have tried to trace the men digital lives, finding references to some of those indicted by the FBI in academic papers on computing and mathematics, on Russian cybersecurity conference attendee lists or in the case of Cpt. Nikolay Kozachek, nicknamed written into the malicious code created by Fancy Bear, the nickname long applied to the hacking squad before their identities were allegedly revealed by the FBI. canada goose store
Canada Goose Outlet One of Kozachek other nicknames also appears on a website that allowed users to mine tokens for new weapons to use in the first person shooter videogame Strike: Global Offensive providing a flavour of the hackers extracurricular interests Canada Goose Outlet.
