At first sight, Volcano looks like a typical medium-sized technology company – it employs about 120 people. But the activities of a company based in a six-story building on the outskirts of Moscowseems to go way beyond cybersecurity advice, which should be the core service it provides.

A few days after Russian invasion of Ukraine Last February, a company employee, understandably wishing to remain anonymous, approached the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung with a large volume of files, emails, plans and contracts that he intercepted from Vulkan, which revealed the company’s relationship with the Russian government. These revelations provide a rare glimpse — even more rare given how few such leaks are in the country — of how the Kremlin is trying to expand and dominate the Internet world. “People need to be aware of the danger. I am disappointed with the country’s invasion of Ukraine, so I decided to make these files public, ”the former employee said, according to the British Guardian.

Cyber ​​attacks

Vulkan, whose executive director is former Captain Anton Markov, who has “good connections” in the Russian military leadership, has been linked to many illegal and propaganda activities. One of the leaked documents, authenticated by five different intelligence agencies, links Vulkan to the infamous Sandworm hacking group that caused two power outages in Ukraine, attacked the South Korean Olympics and launched the most destructive malware in history. In addition, two Vulkan software are used: one to control the Internet in the Russian-occupied territories and spread fake news through social networks in these areas, and the other to damage infrastructure in the air, on land and at sea.

Some of the thousands of pages of documents show maps marked “likely targets”. One of them has “pins” on almost the entire territory of the United States, and on the other, a nuclear plant in Switzerland is mapped in detail. As it turned out, many of the “orders” for attacks on infrastructure abroad came from the FSB, the Russian intelligence agency, as well as from an operational unit of the Russian military, also known as the GOU.

Many analysts say Russia is also engaged in an ongoing digital conflict with what it sees as its enemy, with the West, including the US, UK, EU, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which have developed their own means of cyber warfare amid the ever-increasing digital race. weapons.

“Own Mission”

John Holtquist, vice president of US cybersecurity firm Mandiant, which analyzed parts of the leaked material, said: “These documents show that Russia sees attacks on civilian infrastructure and manipulation of social media as part of its own mission, which is essentially an attack on the enemy’s will to fight.”