{"id":32355,"date":"2018-08-01T15:23:21","date_gmt":"2018-08-01T15:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2018\/08\/01\/leaked-chats-show-alleged-russian-spy-seeking-hacking-tools\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:40:07","slug":"leaked-chats-show-alleged-russian-spy-seeking-hacking-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/home\/2018\/08\/01\/leaked-chats-show-alleged-russian-spy-seeking-hacking-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaked chats show alleged Russian spy seeking hacking tools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MOSCOW \u2014 Six years ago, a Russian-speaking cybersecurity researcher received an unsolicited email from Kate S. Milton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Milton claimed to work for the Moscow-based anti-virus firm Kaspersky. In an exchange that began in halting English and quickly switched to Russian, Milton said she was impressed by the researcher\u2019s work on exploits \u2014 the digital lock picks used by hackers to break into vulnerable systems \u2014 and wanted to be copied in on any new ones that the researcher came across.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou almost always have all the top-end exploits,\u201d Milton said, after complimenting the researcher about a post to her website, where she often dissected malicious software.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/home\/2018\/07\/30\/shaheen-office-hearing-of-widespread-hacker-attempts\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"157\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-83353738.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Shaheen: office hearing of \u2018widespread\u2019 hacker attempts<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire says her office is hearing of \u201cwidespread\u201d computer hacker attempts of political parties and of her fellow Senate colleagues, and her own staff has turned over one matter for authorities to investigate.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSo that our contact isn\u2019t one-sided, I\u2019d offer you my help analyzing malicious viruses, and as I get new samples I\u2019ll share,\u201d Milton continued. \u201cWhat do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The researcher \u2014 who works as a security engineer and runs the malware-sharing site on the side \u2014 always had a pretty good idea that Milton wasn\u2019t who she said she was. Last month, she got confirmation via an FBI indictment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The indictment , made public on July 13, lifted the lid on the Russian hacking operation that targeted the 2016 U.S. presidential election. It identified \u201cKate S. Milton\u201d as an alias for military intelligence officer Ivan Yermakov, one of 12 Russian spies accused of breaking into the Democratic National Committee and publishing its emails in an attempt to influence the 2016 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/cyber\/2018\/07\/31\/homeland-security-announces-new-risk-management-center\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"157\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-1008351214.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Homeland Security announces new first response cyber center<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The National Risk Management Center is supposed to provide a centralized home where companies and local agencies can go to for cybersecurity issues.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The researcher, who gave her exchanges with Milton to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said she wasn\u2019t pleased to learn she had been corresponding with an alleged Russian spy. But she wasn\u2019t particularly surprised either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis area of research is a magnet for suspicious people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The researcher and Milton engaged in a handful of conversations between April 2011 and March 2012. But even their sparse exchanges, along with a few digital breadcrumbs left behind by Yermakov and his colleagues, offer insight into the men behind the keyboards at Russia\u2019s Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It isn\u2019t unusual for messages like Milton\u2019s to come in out of the blue, especially in the relatively small world of independent malware analysts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere was nothing particularly unusual in her approach,\u201d the researcher said. \u201cI had very similar interactions with amateur and professional researchers from different countries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pair corresponded for a while. Milton shared a piece of malicious code at one point and sent over a hacking-related YouTube video at another, but contact fizzled out after a few months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then, the following year, Milton got back in touch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s been all work, work, work,\u201d Milton said by way of apology, before quickly getting to the point. She needed new lock picks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI know that you can help,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI\u2019m working on a new project and I really need contacts that can provide information or have contacts with people who have new exploits. I am willing to pay for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In particular, Milton said she wanted information on a recently disclosed vulnerability codenamed CVE-2012-0002 &#8211; a critical Microsoft flaw that could allow hackers to remotely compromise some Windows computers. Milton had heard that someone had already cobbled together a working exploit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019d like to get it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The researcher demurred. The trade in exploits \u2014 for use by spies, cops, surveillance companies or criminals \u2014 can be a seedy one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI usually steer clear from any wannabe buyers and sellers,\u201d she told the AP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She politely declined &#8211; and never heard from Milton again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Milton&#8217;s Twitter account \u2014 whose profile photo features &#8220;Lost&#8221; star Evangeline Lilly \u2014 is long dormant. The last few messages carry urgent, awkwardly worded appeals for exploits or tips about vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHelp me find detailed description CVE-2011-0978,\u201d one message reads, referring to a bug in PHP, a coding language often used for websites. \u201cNeed a work exploit,\u201d the message continues, ending with a smiley face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It isn\u2019t clear whether Yermakov was working for the GRU when he first masqueraded as Kate S. Milton. Milton\u2019s Twitter silence \u2014 starting in 2011 \u2014 and the reference to a \u201cnew project\u201d in 2012 might hint at a new job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In any case, Yermakov wasn\u2019t working for the anti-virus firm Kaspersky \u2014 not then and not ever, the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe don\u2019t know why he allegedly presented himself as an employee,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Messages sent by the AP to Kate S. Milton\u2019s Gmail account were not returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The exchanges between Milton (Yermakov) and the researcher could be read in different ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They might show that the GRU was trying to cultivate people in the information security community with an eye toward getting the latest exploits as soon as possible, said Cosimo Mortola, a threat intelligence analyst at the cybersecurity company FireEye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s also possible that Yermakov might have initially worked as an independent hacker, hustling for spy tools before being hired by Russian military intelligence \u2014 a theory that makes sense to defense and foreign policy analyst Pavel Felgenhauer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFor cyber, you have to hire boys that understand computers and everything the old spies at the GRU don\u2019t understand,\u201d Felgenhauer said. \u201cYou find a good hacker, you recruit him and give him some training and a rank \u2014 a lieutenant or something \u2014 and then he will do the same stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The leak of Milton&#8217;s conversations shows how the glare of publicity is revealing elements of the hackers&#8217; methods \u2014 and perhaps even hints about their private lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s possible, for example, that Yermakov and many of his colleagues commute to work through the arched entrance to Komsomolsky 22, a military base in the heart of Moscow that serves as home to the alleged hacker\u2019s Unit 26165. Photos shot from inside show it\u2019s a well-kept facility, with a czarist-era facade, manicured lawns, flower beds and shady trees in a central courtyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The AP and others have tried to trace the men\u2019s digital lives, finding references to some of those indicted by the FBI in academic papers on computing and mathematics, on Russian cybersecurity conference attendee lists or \u2014 in the case of Cpt. Nikolay Kozachek, nicknamed \u201ckazak\u201d \u2014 written into the malicious code created by Fancy Bear, the nickname long applied to the hacking squad before their identities were allegedly revealed by the FBI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of Kozachek\u2019s other nicknames also appears on a website that allowed users to mine tokens for new weapons to use in the first-person shooter videogame \u201cCounter Strike: Global Offensive\u201d \u2014 providing a flavor of the hackers&#8217; extracurricular interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The AP has also uncovered several social media profiles tied to another of Yermakov\u2019s indicted colleagues \u2014 Lt. Aleksey Lukashev, allegedly the man behind the successful phishing of the email account belonging to Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign chairman, John Podesta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lukashev operated a Twitter account under the alias \u201cDen Katenberg,\u201d according to an analysis of the indictment as well as data supplied by the cybersecurity firm Secureworks and Twitter\u2019s \u201cFind My Friends\u201d feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A tipster using the Russian facial recognition search engine FindFace recently pointed the AP to a VKontatke account that, while using a different name, appears active and features photos of the same young, Slavic-looking man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many of his posts and his friends appear to originate from a district outside Moscow known as Voskresensky. The photos show him cross-country skiing at night, wading in emerald waters somewhere warm and visiting Yaroslavl, an ancient city northwest of Moscow. One video appeared to show Russia\u2019s 2017 Spasskaya Tower Festival, a military music festival popular with officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The AP could not establish with certainty that the man on the VKontatke account is Lukashev. Several people listed as friends either declined to comment when approached by the AP or said Lukashev\u2019s name was unknown to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shortly thereafter, the profile\u2019s owner locked down his account, making his vacation snaps invisible to outsiders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Satter reported from London. Kate de Pury in Moscow contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">___<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>The exchanges between the cybersecurity researcher and Kate S. Milton are available here: <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/4620715-Kate-S-Milton-Chats.html\" target=_blank><i>https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/4620715-Kate-S-Milton-Chats.html<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Six years ago, a Russian-speaking cybersecurity researcher received an unsolicited email from Kate S. Milton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":112349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"8":{"categories":[],"primary_category":""}}},"categories":[106,29,32],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1145,7788],"class_list":["post-32355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"LBHGAIPGJJDPTMXM53O6R7JNRI","arc_canonical_url":"\/civilian\/fbi-doj\/2018\/08\/01\/leaked-chats-show-alleged-russian-spy-seeking-hacking-tools\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Leaked chats show alleged Russian spy seeking hacking tools - C4ISRNet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Six years ago, a Russian-speaking cybersecurity researcher received an unsolicited email from Kate S. 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