A top cyber-security specialist in Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has been arrested on charges of treason, the Kommersant newspaper reported Wednesday.
Sergei Mikhailov, deputy chief at the FSB's Information Security Center (CDC), stands accused of receiving money from “foreign organizations,” Kommersant reported, citing unnamed FSB sources.
Mikhailov has been detained in pre-trial detention since December 2016, alongside Ruslan Stoyanov, the head of cyber-crime investigations at Russia's Kaspersky Labs.
Stoyanov, who worked for the Moscow police force until 2006, allegedly acted as a go-between for Mikhailov and other groups.
Kaspersky Labs confirmed Stoyanov's arrest, maintaining that any charges were against Stoyanov “as a private citizen” and that the investigation was not related to the company.
Neither Stoyanov nor Mikhailov has been active online since early December, Kommersant reported, while Mikhailov's friends also confirmed that they have been unable to reach him by phone.
The Russian media reported on Jan. 13 that CDC chief Andrei Gerasimov could be forced to leave his post due to an investigation being carried out against one of his deputies. Unnamed sources told Kommersant that a private computer security company was also involved in the case.
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