Leaks of confidential files from Vulkan, a company linked to Russian intelligence, reveal that its former employees now work for large European groups.
The Vulkans files offer many revelations. In these top secret documents linked to the cyberattack program carried out by the Kremlin, we learn that several multinationals employed former members of Vulkan, this cyberespionage company, explains an article by the German media Der Spiegel published on March 30, 2023.
The database, comprising 5,299 confidential pages, gives the names of employees of the famous company commissioned to prepare Kremlin operations by finding flaws in institutions and companies in Europe and the United States. Sergey N. worked for Vulkan before being hired for Dublin-based Amazon cloud arm AWS.
This 35-year-old man, a senior software development engineer, naturally went through Amazon’s many selection stages to join the tech giant. The recruiters were well aware that Sergey was previously the lead developer at Vulkan, a position of responsibility. The 30-year-old had therefore spent more than seven years on projects such as Scan-V, computer vulnerability research software focused on Europe and the United States, or the training program for disrupting rail, air and maritime. Documents directly link this company to the Kremlin hacker group, Sandworm, behind several destructive attacks.
“A threat considered high”
Worse, Der Spiegel indicates that a leaked document ” from June 2019 includes comments signed on his behalf – at a time when he says he was already working for AWS. Asked for a comment, the American company merely said that the security of its customers’ data was its highest priority “. A spokesperson for the German Interior Ministry said the general security threat was considered high, but declined to comment on this specific case.
Vulkan hackers have been working for the Kremlin’s intelligence services for ten years, helping them find loopholes to prepare for a future cyberattack. These leaks are very rare and reveal the Kremlin’s aggressive policy against the West.
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