It was not immediately clear what the exact alleged conduct was, though U.S. intelligence agencies have accused the FSB of hacking U.S. targets and Russia's other agency, the GRU, of releasing information to help the election of President Trump.</s>Russian media reported the arrests this week of three individuals suspected of treason, including a researcher employed by the nation’s leading cybersecurity firm and two employees of the former KGB.

Ruslan Stoyanov, the head of Kaspersky Lab’s computer incidents investigations unit, and Sergei Mikhailov, a senior official within the FSB’s Center of Information Security, were quietly arrested last month on charges of treason, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported Wednesday.

Mr. Stoyanov “is under investigation for a period predating his employment at Kaspersky Lab,” the security firm confirmed in a statement. He was hired by the company in 2012 after spending six years working for the Moscow Cyber Crime unit of the Russian Interior Ministry, according to his LinkedIn profile, where he hunted down hackers on behalf of the government, including cybercriminals subsequently convicted of causing millions of dollars in damages, Forbes reported Wednesday.

His arrest coincided with that of Mr. Mikhailov, who was apprehended by authorities in the middle of an FSB meeting last month and hauled away with a sack over his head, according to Russian media. Until then Mr. Mikhailov was considered the second-most senior figure in the Center for Information Security, an elite FSB unit that researchers have linked to cyberattacks launched last year against various U.S. political targets.

The case brought against the Kaspersky researcher and FSB official were filed in a secret military tribunal under Article 275 of the country’s constitution, which defines treason as “espionage, disclosure of state secrets, or any other assistance rendered to a foreign organization, or their representatives in hostile activities to the detriment of the external security of the Russian Federation committed by a citizen of the Russian Federation.”

Conviction carries a maximum punishment of 20 years imprisonment.

A second FSB official, Major Dmitry Dokuchaev, was also arrested for treason last month in connection to the same case, Russian media reported Thursday, citing anonymous sources. He had reportedly served in the same FSB unit under Mr. Mikhailov, the privately-owned REN-TV reported.

Four people in all have been arrested in relation to the treason probe, according to the television network, including a person whose identity has yet to be disclosed.

The FSB did not respond when reached for comment by The New York Times this week with respect to the charges. Nonetheless, speculation surrounding the purpose of the probe have already emerged in the few days since reports of the arrests became public — among them a claim circulated by the Moscow Times this week that suggests Mr. Mikhailov may have notified U.S. investigators about a Russian company allegedly implicated in cyberattacks conducted last year against electoral systems in Arizona and Illinois.

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Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.</s>Kaspersky Lab Product Remover is a portable tool which can completely uninstall almost any recent Kaspersky application. You should always use the official uninstaller first, via Control Panel’s “Programs and Features” applet, but if that’s not working then Kaspersky Lab Product Remover is a simple alternative.

The program doesn’t require any special preparation, booting into Safe Mode or anything else. Just unzip it and you’re ready to go.

You’re asked to agree to the program licence, but after that all you have to do is to enter a code (a simple CAPTCHA to prevent the Remover being used automatically), select your product if it’s not already been detected, and click Remove.

The Product Remover should then properly uninstall your Kaspersky software, but the files may still be visible until you reboot.

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Kaspersky Lab Product Remover creates a log file in the same folder as itself, recording the details of the uninstall. If it doesn’t work as you expect then this might offer some clues.</s>Russian authorities have charged two officers in the Federal Security Service and an employee of cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab with committing treason in the interests of the United States, a lawyer representing one of the three said.

Ivan Pavlov identified the three as Ruslan Stoyanov, head of Kaspersky's computer incidents investigation team, and two officers working for the FSB's Information Security Centre, Sergei Mikhailov and Dmitry Dokuchayev.

"My client, along with the others, has been charged with state treason and cooperating with US intelligence services," Mr Pavlov said.

The arrests were made at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow after US intelligence officials accused Russian hackers of sabotaging last year's US election in favour of President Donald Trump.

Russian newspaper Kommersant first reported the arrests last week, which it said took place in December.

The Kaspersky team headed by Ruslan Stoyanov has been cooperating with the FSB since 2013 in analysing cybercrime cases and offering expertise in criminal cases concerning cybersecurity, Kommersant reported.

Kaspersky Lab confirmed Mr Stoyanov's arrest but said the charges related to a period before he joined the company in 2012.

Ivan Pavlov declined to say which of the three he was representing, saying only that the Kaspersky executive was not his client.

A Kremlin spokesman said Russian President Vladimir Putin was aware of media reports about the arrests, but the Kremlin could not confirm anything about them.</s>Security vendor Kaspersky's top hacker hunter Ruslan Stoyanov has been arrested by Russian authorities on suspicion of treason.

News of Stoyanov's arrest which took place in December last year, was reported by the Russian language Kommersant business publication.

Kaspersky later confirmed that Stoyanov had been arrested but said it had nothing to do with the company.

"The case against this employee does not involve Kaspersky Lab," the security vendor said in a statement.

"The employee, who is head of the computer incidents investigation team, is under investigation for a period predating his employment at Kaspersky Lab.

"We do not possess details of the investigation."

Kaspersky said its lab work would proceed as normal.

Stoyanov works as a senior cyber investigator at Kaspersky. He also has a past with Russia's ministry of the interior, working at the Moscow cyber crime unit in the first part of the new millennium.

He has taken part in multiple high-profile cyber crime operations with Kaspersky and Russian police, including the investigation into the Lurk gang that disseminated malware to steal over US$30 million from people bank accounts. That operation saw 50 people arrested in Russia.

Kommersant said the head of Russia's federal security service's (FSB) information security centre (CDC), Sergei Mikhailov, was arrested together with Stoyanov at the same time in December.

The two are suspected of treason, by violating article 275 of Russia's criminal code. The FSB alleges both have aided foreign states or organisations in return for money but details are otherwise scant in the case.

Article 275 is a far-reaching statute that was further expanded in 2012, and which classifies as treason the provision of advice or assistance to foreign states or international organisations if they're involved in activitites against Russia.

Violations of article 275 are punishable with between 12 to 20 years' imprisonment and a fine of up to 500,000 rubles (A$11,100), or three years' worth of salary.</s>Two security officers and an employee of a cyber security firm are accused of cooperating with US intelligence services.

Russian authorities have charged two former officers in the Federal Security Service and an employee of cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab with committing treason in the interests of the United States, according to a lawyer representing one of the three.

Ivan Pavlov identified the three on Wednesday as Kaspersky employee Ruslan Stoyanov and FSB officers who specialised in cyber security, Sergei Mikhailov and Dmitry Dokuchayev.

"My client, along with the others, has been charged with state treason and cooperating with US intelligence services," Pavlov told Reuters news agency in a telephone interview.

He declined to say which of the three he was representing, saying only that Stoyanov was not his client.

The Kaspersky team headed by Stoyanov has been cooperating with the FSB since 2013 in analysing cybercrime cases and offering expertise in criminal cases concerning cybersecurity, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.

Kaspersky Lab confirmed Stoyanov's arrest but said the charges related to a period before he joined the company in 2012.

According to the Russian news agency TASS, the Kremlin rejected speculation that the arrested FSB officers were complicit in hacking attacks during the US presidential election.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin was aware of media reports about the arrests but that the Kremlin could not confirm anything about them.</s>MOSCOW
• The Russian authorities have charged two officers in the Federal Security Service, or FSB, and an employee of cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab with committing treason in the interests of the United States, a lawyer representing one of the three said.

Mr Ivan Pavlov identified the three as Ruslan Stoyanov, head of Kaspersky's computer incidents investigation team, and two officers working for the FSB's Information Security Centre, Sergei Mikhailov and Dmitry Dokuchayev.

"My client, along with others, has been charged with state treason and cooperating with US intelligence services," Mr Pavlov told Reuters.

The arrests were made at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow after US intelligence officials accused Russian hackers of sabotaging last year's US election in favour of President Donald Trump.

Russian newspaper Kommersant first reported the arrests last week, which it said took place in December.

The Kaspersky team, headed by Stoyanov, has been cooperating with the FSB since 2013 in analysing cybercrime cases and offering expertise in criminal cases concerning cyber security, Kommersant reported.

Kaspersky Lab confirmed Stoyanov's arrest but said the charges related to a period before he joined the company in 2012.

Mr Pavlov declined to say which of the three he was representing, stating only that Stoyanov was not his client.

Interfax news agency, quoting a source familiar with the probe, also reported that Mikhailov and Dokuchayev were accused of betraying their oath and working with the US Central Intelligence Agency.

A Kremlin spokesman said Russian President Vladimir Putin was aware of media reports about the arrests but the Kremlin could not confirm anything about them.

The details made public so far are incomplete. Russian media reports link the charges to the disclosure of the Russian role in attacking state election boards, including the scanning of voter rolls in Arizona and Illinois, and do not mention the parallel attacks on the Democratic Party and the e-mail of Mrs Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman.

But one current and one former US official, speaking about the classified recruitments on condition of anonymity, confirmed that human sources in Russia did play a crucial role in proving who was responsible for the hacking.

Russian media says the FSB investigation into Mikhailov and Dokuchayev began after ThreatConnect, a US cyber security company, alleged that hackers used King Servers, an Internet hosting company, to attack US state election rolls.

The business partner of the owner of King Servers has long accused Mikhailov of working for the Federal Bureau of Invesitgation, the Financial Times reported yesterday. This is believed to have prompted the investigation into Mikhailov and Dokuchayev, a former hacker known as "Forb" who joined the secret services to avoid prison, according to Interfax.

Russian media often publishes news sourced from anonymous members of the secret services.

The stories often appear to push the Kremlin's line, reflect internal dissent among officials, be a deliberate attempt to mislead the public or a combination of all three, the Financial Times said.

The speed and detail in which elements of the case have been made public is, however, highly unusual.

Life, a tabloid whose owner boasts about bribing security officers for stories, reported on Tuesday that police found US$12 million (S$17 million) in cash stashed away in Mikhailov's home and dacha.</s>Two former Federal Security Service (FSB) officers and a manager at Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab have been charged with treason and accused of betraying Russia in the interests of the United States, Russian news agencies cited a defense lawyer as saying on February 1.

Attorney Ivan Pavlov said that Sergei Mikhailov, Dmitry Dokuchayev, and Ruslan Stoyanov "have been charged with treason in the interest of the United States," Interfax reported. State-run TASS carried a similar report and quoted Pavlov, who it said represents one of three men, as saying each faces a single charge.

TASS cited Pavlov as saying that investigators from the FSB believe that Mikhailov, Dokuchayev, and Stoyanov -- the Kaspersky Lab manager -- gave U.S. intelligence or security services Russian state secrets, but that "the CIA does not figure in the case." He added that: "We are talking about America, but not the CIA."

Interfax on January 31 had quoted "sources familiar with the situation" as saying that Mikhailov and Dokuchayev, the former FSB officers, were suspected of relaying confidential information to the CIA.

Based on reporting by Interfax and TASS</s>Two security officers and an employee of a cyber security firm are accused of cooperating with US intelligence services.

Russian authorities have charged two former officers in the Federal Security Service and an employee of cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab with committing treason in the interests of the United States, according to a lawyer representing one of the three.

Ivan Pavlov identified the three on Wednesday as Kaspersky employee Ruslan Stoyanov and FSB officers who specialised in cyber security, Sergei Mikhailov and Dmitry Dokuchayev.

"My client, along with the others, has been charged with state treason and cooperating with US intelligence services," Pavlov told Reuters news agency in a telephone interview.

He declined to say which of the three he was representing, saying only that Stoyanov was not his client.

The Kaspersky team headed by Stoyanov has been cooperating with the FSB since 2013 in analysing cybercrime cases and offering expertise in criminal cases concerning cybersecurity, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.

Kaspersky Lab confirmed Stoyanov's arrest but said the charges related to a period before he joined the company in 2012.

Al Jazeera's Rory Challands, reporting from Moscow, said that the trio were arrested late last year, adding that the charges were likely to carry between 12 and 20 years of prison terms.

"The news of the arrest didn't come out until mid-January. Now we've had some charges announced. The big question is - and it is unanswered at the moment - what were they doing?" he said.

"There are a couple of not necessarily mutually exclusive theories about this. One is that when the CIA said that it had high confidence that Russia was behind the hacking of Democratic Party National Congress emails in the run-up to the US presidential elections, it was information from these guys that gave the CIA that high confidence," Challands said.

"Another theory is that these people were running a kind of shadow hacking group motivated primarily by profit - selling information on important people to anyone who would buy it, private buyers or foreign intelligence services."

According to the Russian news agency TASS, the Kremlin rejected speculation that the arrested FSB officers were complicit in hacking attacks during the US presidential election.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin was aware of media reports about the arrests but that the Kremlin could not confirm anything about them.</s>Kaspersky Lab announces the availability of its Kaspersky Interactive Protection Simulation Online training (KIPS Online). KIPS Online is a valuable addition to previously available and highly regarded KIPS Live offline cybersecurity training. Both Live and Online versions offer actionable security intelligence training for top-level business executives around the world.

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The Kremlin arrests four people, Kaspersky Lab's Ruslan Stoyanov, and three officials in the Federal Security Service (FSB previously KGB) Center for Information Security, reportedly on treason charges for passing information to America's CIA.