Treason: Top Cyber Security Executive Arrested
Russian law enforcement agencies have raided the office of cyber security company Group-IB and arrested its founder and chief executive officer, for two months, on state treason charges. Ilya Sachkov, the chief executive of top Russian cyber security company Group IB, has been arrested on suspicion of state treason and will hold him in custody for two months, a Moscow court said recently.
State treason is punishable by up to 20 years in jail. The details of such cases seldom come to light in full because of their classified nature.
Russian law enforcement officers searched the Moscow offices of Group IB, the company said. Group IB has not responded to requests for comment about the detention of their chief executive, but said all services continued to run normally and client data was secured by the company’s geographically dispersed infrastructure.
Group IB is one of Russia's most prominent cyber security firms. It focuses on investigating high tech crimes and online fraud, with a global client base that includes banks, energy companies, telecoms firms and Interpol. A lawyer for Sachkov could not be reached for comment and it was not immediately clear what the allegations against him related to.
Group IB said in a statement that the searches at its offices had begun on Tuesday morning, with law enforcement officials leaving that same evening. It said it had no information about why the searches were being conducted and that all services were running as normal and that the security of client data was ensured by the company's geographically distributed infrastructure.
Group-IB’s communications team said the reason for the search was not yet clear but wanted to reassure customers in other countries that their data was safe. The company said it was working to clarify the situation.
A number of Russian scientists, soldiers and officials have been charged with treason in recent years after being accused of passing sensitive material to foreign countries.
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