Category: Michael Novakhov – SharedNewsLinks℠

It was 10 years ago that Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of the most popular Russian-speaking social media VKontakte (VK), modeled after Facebook, announced on April 16, 2014, that he had said “No” to the FSB by rejecting the Russian security service’s demand that he hand over the personal data of organizers of Ukraine’s Euromaidan revolutionary groups.  

“Delivery of personal data of Ukrainians to the Russian authorities would not have been only illegal, it would have been treason against all those millions of Ukrainians who trust us.” he wrote. He admitted that his decision would cost him control over his company — he was forced to sell his share in VK.

His second post, two hours later, said, “On March 13, 2014, the Prosecutor’s office requested that I shut the anticorruption group of Alexey Navalny. I didn’t close this group in December 2011, and I certainly won’t close it now. In recent weeks, I was under pressure from different angles. We managed to gain over a month, but it’s time to state this — neither myself, nor my team are going to conduct political censorship . . . Freedom of information is an inalienable right in post-industrial society.”

Five days later, Durov was fired as chief executive. Soon afterward, he left Russia and never returned.

That was how Durov, then a 29-year-old St-Petersburg-based IT entrepreneur, lost his first child, the Vkontakte social network, and his motherland. He later took French citizenship.

He retained his vision that Internet technologies could be a global and successful challenge to traditional national systems of control. And he kept his reputation — most Russians admired his bravery and his stand against the FSB. He also retained control over a new project his team had been working on for some time — Telegram messenger.

Telegram proved itself more creative than other messengers when it gave its users an option to run the channels — news feeds administered by the users. In countries where freedom of media was under attack from the governments, those channels became a substitute for news outlets, although not exactly — most popular channels were filled with half-news, half gossip, in some cases from known and trusted sources, but also from anonymous sources, who positioned themselves as insiders.

In Russia, both sides grabbed this new Telegram feature — pro-Kremlin bloggers used Telegram channels to spread propaganda and disinformation, while independent journalists and activists turned to Telegram to break through censorship. 

The messenger system gained popularity around the world, especially in countries with poor connectivity and authoritarian regimes, and there it became a competitor to Facebook’s WhatsApp messenger.

It put Durov at odds with an increasing number of governments: Russia banned Telegram for two years in 2018, while Iran blocked the app during the protests in 2017 and in 2018. Western governments, too, were upset because Telegram became increasingly popular among terrorist groups and all kinds of criminals. The service is accused of aiding money launderers, terrorists, extreme pornographers, and child abusers.

Durov maintained his public stance about privacy but secretly negotiated deals with governments that resulted in the lifting of bans and never revealed the terms.

For instance, we’re not sure exactly why the Kremlin lifted its ban on the messenger service in 2020. The Kremlin said Durov must not only ban “extremist content” but also wanted him to surrender Telegram’s encryption keys that would allow authorities to read private conversations. Telegram was unblocked in June 2020. Had Durov made some sort of deal with the FSB?  We don’t know.

Following the Kremlin’s unprecedented and existential offensive against independent media on the eve of the all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022, most Russian journalists and opposition moved to Telegram, along with YouTube. Durov made no effort to block this, and nor did he raise a finger about the increasing presence of pro-Kremlin bloggers on the app.

When the full-scale war in Ukraine started, we launched a Telegram channel for our website Agentura.ru. The website was blocked by the Kremlin, but the channel was not. That story was repeated by many Russian independent media outlets, who are now in exile.

At the same time, the war gave a boost to pro-war bloggers, who enjoyed a massive following, which helped to mobilize public support for the war and crowd-fund for the Russian military.

As a result, Durov found himself under fire from all sides: the Kremlin demanded he block what it did not like, and Russian liberals criticized Telegram for providing a platform to warmongers. Human rights activists were meanwhile warning anti-war activists against using Telegram as a messenger because it was unclear whether the authorities had access to the system.

The unmediated mix of users, including two armies at war, reflects precisely Durov’s idea of freedom of expression. Everyone can have a say on social media, and there shouldn’t be any kind of control from any government.

His quasi-anarchic attitude seems to echo the ideology of the early hacker movement of the 1980s, but it isn’t a sustainable strategy today, when governments around the world are on the offensive against the free-for-all approach online. This bureaucratic counter-offensive has been efficient and successful.

First, the authorities recognized that behind even the most ambitious global platforms are human beings; and human beings can be put under all sorts of pressure. For example, in 2016, Brazilian authorities briefly detained Diego J. Dzodan, Facebook’s vice-president for Latin America, because WhatsApp had refused to share the messages of alleged drug dealers.

Next, the concept that big tech business tycoons were too eminent for even authoritarian states to tangle with was quietly abandoned, when, in 2020, Jack Ma, a high-profile Chinese billionaire and Alibaba founder, fell out with the authorities. His company’s stock market listing was suspended, and Ma disappeared from the public eye. Later, he reappeared in Japan as a visiting professor at Tokyo College. 

In retrospect, Durov was living a charmed existence in his Dubai-based exile. The tech attitudes of 2014 look hopelessly out of date 10 years later. Governments from the US to Europe and far beyond are rolling out more and more regulations for social media, from Facebook to TikTok.

No one — other perhaps than the tech titans themselves can really argue against evidence that unruly social media can cause a lot of damage. The time for unmoderated social media has long passed.

Quite how that happens is a question to be discussed. But at the far end of the spectrum, the nation-state has the ability to arrest those who refuse to cooperate. That is how the French decided to make Telegram cooperate with the country’s law enforcement agencies. Other tools are also available — in 2020, India banned 59 Chinese apps altogether.

But is government coercion the only way to enforce the rules?

Users are constantly presented with an alternative — either a dangerously chaotic social media or government control. But maybe there are other options.

Social media are an essential part of our societal fabric, and our society, through non-government organizations, or parliaments, and parliamentary hearings, are perfectly capable of creating mechanisms of control that do not include the arrests of CEOs for the lack of moderation.

Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan are Non-resident Senior Fellows with the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA.) They are Russian investigative journalists, and co-founders of Agentura.ru, a watchdog of Russian secret service activities.

Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position or views of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis.

В 2017 году спецслужбы Франции и ОАЭ провели совместную операцию по взлому айфона, принадлежащего Павлу Дурову. Об этом пишет The Wall Street Journal со ссылкой на источники.

Издание утверждает, что операция по взлому называлась Purple music и была спланирована из-за обеспокоенности французских силовиков тем, что ИГИЛ использует мессенджер для вербовки и терактов.

Через год после этого президент Франции Эмманюэль Макрон обедал с Дуровым и предлагал перенести штаб-квартиру Telegram в Париж. Как сказано в материале издания, тот отказался от предложения Макрона. Кроме этого, на этой встрече президент Франции обсуждал с основателем Telegram предоставление французского гражданства. В 2021 году он получил его по процедуре, которая, как отмечает газета Le Monde, применяется крайне редко. Тогда же он получил гражданство и ОАЭ.

“Хотя нет никаких признаков того, что встреча с Макроном или взлом телефона Дурова сыграли роль в его задержании, эти детали проливают новый свет на долгие и сложные отношения Дурова с Францией и ОАЭ”, – отмечает WSJ.

Дурова задержали вечером 24 августа в парижском аэропорту Ле-Бурже, куда он прилетел из Азербайджана на частном самолете. Вместе с ним были телохранитель и спутница, которых позже отпустили.

Основателя Telegram задержали в рамках расследования, которое проводится в отношении неустановленного лица по 12 составам преступлений.

The alleged leader of a global ransomware scam has been extradited from Poland to face charges in the U.S. that he defrauded millions of Americans.

The U.S. Secret Service detained Maksim Silnikau, a dual Belarussian and Ukrainian citizen who was formally indicted in both New Jersey and Virginia for computer hacking and wire fraud schemes, according to court documents unsealed on August 13. Silnikov, 38, has been associated with the online monikers “J.P. Morgan”, “xxx” and “lansky”.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said: “For over a decade, the defendant used a host of online disguises and a network of fraudulent ad campaigns to spread ransomware and scam U.S. businesses and consumers.”

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She added: “The Justice Department takes another step forward in disrupting ransomware actors and malicious cybercriminals who prey on victims in the U.S. and around the world.”

The arrest is part of a long-term investigation by the U.S. Secret Service with the help of foreign, domestic and private partners, according to Brian Lamber, the assistant director of investigations with the Secret Service.

“Cybercriminals should know that even if they attempt to hide their criminal conduct behind the anonymity of the internet that eventually, through the dedication of international law enforcement professionals, they will be apprehended and held accountable for their actions,” Lambert said.

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In New Jersey, Silnikau is charged along with his alleged co-conspirators Volodymyr Kadari, of Belarus and Ukraine, and Andrei Tarasov, of Russia. The District of New Jersey charged the three with cybercrime offenses in association with a scheme to transmit the Angler Exploit Kit and other malware.

They face maximum penalties of 27 years in prison for wire fraud conspiracy, 10 years in prison for computer fraud conspiracy and 20 years on each wire fraud count.

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Angler Exploit Kit enabled the delivery of the “scareware” ads to display fake messages claiming to have identified a virus or other issues with the victim’s device. The messages then tried to deceive the victim into buying or downloading software, providing remote access and disclosing personal identifying or financial information.

The court claims the three worked to scam “millions of unsuspecting victims” through online advertisements, or by “malvertising” between October 2013 and March 2022.

The ads “appeared legitimate but were actually designed to deliver malware,” according to Nicole Argentieri, the principal deputy assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s criminal division. The malware would compromise devices and retrieve personal information.

“The conspirators’ scheme caused unsuspecting Internet users to be forcibly redirected to malicious content on millions of occasions, and defrauded and attempted to defraud various U.S.-based companies involved in the sale and distribution of legitimate online advertisements,” according to the the Secret Service.

The three were able to “trick” advertising companies into delivering their malvertising campaigns by using dozens of online personas to pose as legit advertising companies. They also used and developed technologies and codes to refine their malware to conceal their malicious nature behind the advertising.

U.S. attorney Philip Sellinger said Silnikau and his co-conspirators would sell the information to other cybercriminals “on the dark net.”

In Virginia, Silnikau is charged for his role as the creator and administrator of the Ransom Cartel ransomware strain that started operating in May 2021. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum of two years in prison and a maximum penalty of 20 years.

Silnikau was allegedly a member of Russian-speaking cybercrime forums since at least 2005. He was also said to be a member of the cybercrime website Direct Connection from 2011 to 2016.

In 2021, it is alleged that he developed his own ransomware operation and recruited people from the cybercrime forums. On Nov. 16, 2021, Silnikau allegedly executed a ransomware attack on a company based in New York. Four months later, Ransom Cartel was deployed again in California.

“Silnikau and his co-conspirators allegedly used malware and various online scams to target millions of unsuspecting internet users in the United States and around the world,” said FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate.

“They hid behind online aliases and engaged in complex, far-reaching cyber fraud schemes to compromise victim devices and steal sensitive personal information. The FBI will continue to work with partners to aggressively impose costs on cybercriminals and hold them accountable for their actions.”

Do you have a story Newsweek should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com.

Paris
CNN
 — 

The Kremlin is trying to calm fears that the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France could upend the messaging platform, which is extremely popular in Russia and plays a key role in coordinating the war effort in Ukraine.

Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that calls for users to delete their sensitive messages on the app, including from the editor of Russia’s state-run RT news, were “utterly stupid.”

Peskov added that though the allegations against Durov, who was born in Russia but also has citizenship in France and the United Arab Emirates, were “serious,” French authorities would have to put forward “equally serious” evidence to back them up.

“Otherwise, there will be a direct attempt to restrict freedom of communication. And we can even say direct intimidation of the head of a large company. Which means there will be politics involved, something that Mr. Macron denied yesterday,” Peskov said.

The Kremlin’s move to assuage concerns over the future safety of Telegram underscores how important the app has become to Russia’s military.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said the decision to bring charges against Durov was “in no way political,” a rare move as French leaders often avoid discussing criminal cases to avoid any suggestion of politics influencing judicial affairs.

The Paris prosecutor’s office on Monday announced a litany of charges against Durov, including allegations that his platform was complicit in aiding money launderers, drug traffickers and people spreading child pornography. Prosecutors also accused Durov of refusing to comply with French authorities’ demand for help intercepting potentially illicit communications.

At a news conference in Moscow following talks with his Yemeni counterpart on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov alleged, without proof, that “Durov was clearly taken away on someone’s advice and is being threatened with terrible punishment, apparently hoping to somehow gain access to encryption codes.”

With around 950 million users, Telegram is one of the world’s most popular messaging apps. Its strong end-to-end encryption, limited content moderation and functionality — it allows users to share larger files, longer videos and higher-quality photos than many of its competitors — has made it extremely popular in both countries where freedom of speech is curtailed and in war zones, including in Ukraine, where it has become a vital tool for Ukrainian officials to share military updates and warnings about air raids.

“It is very convenient, it is very secure,” Lavrov said.

Those same features have also made Telegram a key communication tool for the Russian military and pro-Kremlin bloggers. One popular pro-Russian war blogger with more than 780,000 followers reshared a post saying that France’s decision to arrest Durov meant that “in essence, the head of communications for the Russian Armed Forces was detained.”

Another less-followed military blogger posted a picture with the words “for Pavel” on a missile presumably bound for Ukraine, which on Monday was hit by the largest aerial attack since the war began.

The blogger, Aleksei Sukonkin, said that Telegram is “the basis of military communications,” even if Russian government officials publicly dispute the claim.

“Telegram is a powerful, alternative to the official, and of course, more efficient information resource; telegram is also the main civilian messenger in Russia, practically uncontrolled by Western intelligence agencies, as well as a powerful advertising resource and a platform for personal blogs,” Sukonkin said. “All this is under threat.”

Telegram’s popularity with pro-Russian military bloggers and the Kremlin’s active support for Durov is somewhat surprising considering the tech entrepreneur refused to supply Moscow with data from users of his previous enterprise, a Facebook-like social media network called Vkontakte (VK).

Durov later resigned as VK’s CEO and sold his shares for millions of dollars. Both he and Telegram are now based in Dubai.

CNN’s Clare Duffy contributed to this report.