According to research by a media association, several former programmers of a Russian hacker company with alleged secret service contacts now work for Western companies such as Siemens, Amazon, Trivago and Booking.com.
The so-called “volcanic files” were evaluated by a research network of various media, including “Spiegel”, ZDF and “Süddeutsche Zeitung” in Austria and “Standard”. It concerns data leaks by the Moscow hacking company NTC Vulkan, which should show how Russia conducts disinformation campaigns on social media through private companies.
“Potentially Serious Security Vulnerabilities”
According to the research, the employment of ex-Vulkan employees leads to “potentially serious security gaps” in Western companies. NTC Vulkan maintains connections with the three Russian secret services FSB, GRU and SWR. The company builds programs for them that enable cyber attacks on critical infrastructure, which can derail trains or paralyze airport computers.
NTC Vulkan was initially unavailable for comment. A Siemens spokesperson said: “We are taking this seriously and are looking into it.” However, for data protection reasons, nothing can be said about the identity of the person in question. According to “Standard,” Amazon and Siemens, when asked, emphasized quite broadly that they take the protection of customer data very seriously. Trivago and Booking.com left such questions unanswered.
Source: Krone
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