Law enforcement officials have raided the Moscow office of Group-IB, the Russian cyber security firm. It is also learnt that the founder of Group-IB, Ilya Sachkov had been arrested for two months in Moscow on suspicion of high treason, according to news agency TASS. Earlier, media outlets reported that law enforcement officials on Tuesday. The company’s press service noted that the law enforcement officials left the office in the evening of the same day. Group-IB added that it had no information regarding the reason for the investigation.
TASS said Sachkov was charged with allegedly transferring classified information to an unnamed foreign government, claims that Sachkov denied, according to reports. Group-IB confirmed the arrest of its CEO and said the company is examining the Moscow court’s decision and that it is “confident” of Sachkov’s innocence.
Group-IB said that co-founder Dmitry Volkov will run the company in Sachkov’s absence, who will be detained for at least two months per the court’s order. “All of Group-IB’s divisions will continue operating as usual,” the statement said.
“The decentralised infrastructure of Group-IB allows us to keep our customer’s data safe, maintain business operations and work without interruption across our offices in Russia and around the world,” it added.
Sachkov, 35, founded Group-IB in 2003. The company, now headquartered in Singapore, helps companies and governments investigate cyberattacks and online fraud, and has customers ranging from Interpol to Russian banks and defense companies.
Sachkov has actively supported an international framework to target hackers. He is one of the independent commissioners of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace along with former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, Black Hat founder Jeff Moss and others, according to its website.
The company said Group-IB’s top management and lawyers were assessing the situation.
