RansomWar Part 4a: CyberCriminals as “Combat Resource” and Bargaining Chip

Russian ransomware actors are “hybrids”: criminals but also IT talent with a fearsome reputation. Why crack down when you can exploit them as a “combat resource” and bargaining chip?

Epigraphs:

The Russian government treats oligarchs, organized crime, and associated businesses as tools of the state, rather than independent, private entities. The Kremlin uses these entities to pursue Kremlin priorities, including money laundering, sanctions evasion, and influence operations. This is a fundamentally different model than in the United States. (Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence United States Senate on Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, volume 5, 2020)

...information security specialists...can be compared with snipers. A person who knows how to shoot well is a real combat resource. A modern programmer, who knows how to breach any operating system from a distance, is also a combat resource.” (Natalya Kasperskaya, Co-founder of Kaspersky Lab, IT contractor and advisor to Russian government ministries, 2017)

The approach our special services use to interact with talented guys [like us] is like a chapter of the “operatio…