Possible Global Pressure? Russia Detains Country’s Top Cybersecurity CEO For Treason

Russia detained the head of one of the country’s largest cyber-security firms on treason charges on Wednesday, in a move that targets a corporation that works with the West to combat cyber-attacks.

The arrest comes after US President Joe Biden expressed worries to Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this year that Moscow is enabling cybercrime intended at Western countries to thrive in the country.

The IB Group, founded in 2003, specialises in the identification and prevention of cyber-attacks and collaborates with Interpol and other global agencies.

According to the court’s press office, Moscow’s Lefortovsky district court ordered the group’s 35-year-old co-founder and CEO Ilya Sachkov to be remanded in pre-trial prison for two months on treason accusations.

It did not go into specifics about the charges.

Treason cases in Russia are normally classified, and the charges entail prison penalties ranging from 12 to 20 years.

Group-IB announced on Wednesday that its Moscow offices had been searched the day before.

The group said in a statement that “top management and legal services are trying to explain the situation.”

According to a source in Russia’s security services, Sachkov denies cooperation with “intelligence agencies of foreign powers.”

According to its website, the Group-IB has offices in Amsterdam, Dubai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Hanoi, in addition to Moscow.

Sachkov co-founded Group-IB at the age of 17, and he was named to Forbes’ “30 under 30” list of tech entrepreneurs in 2016.

Three years later, President Vladimir Putin presented him with a “innovative breakthrough” medal for “developments in the sphere of identifying and preventing cyberthreats.”

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson, stated that the Kremlin did not have information about the issue, but was not concerned about the possibility of developing anxieties in the IT sector about dealing with foreign countries.