It's really bad. I was a Russian major and spent my junior year there. I subsequently went on to jobs in the military / IC that required an SCI clearance as well as a couple of additional SAP screenings.
I carefully listed the Russians I knew under penalty of perjury. I've lost touch with most of them. I wasn't trying to turn them into agents, and they were patriotic Russians who liked me despite, not because of, me being American. The fact that they might be getting FSB attention now is sickening.
The fucking government, man. It really blows your mind sometimes.
In practice, you show up at the border of Russia and are detained (in my case, because virtually no Americans cross this particular border). A nice, younger FSB agent with some English skills asks you a battery of questions but doesn't really care about their job, asking if they can just fill in your address again when given your parents' address, because it's more work than it's worth to transcribe another address that no one will ever read. Later, an older, saltier, more senior FSB agent harangues you over some missing documents before getting bored and letting you go.
We have some amusing preconceptions of Russia that rarely survive the reality of Russia.
A friend of mine was in such situation in Russia. She is a journalist specializing on exotic countries and regions. She has applied for an international passport and was approached by an FSB (Russian FBI) agent. She agreed to meet with him and a lawyer. The FSB agent just disappeared and did not return calls. She has never heard from them again.
Random is the Russian I sat next to on a flight to NYC and never talked to / connected with again.
Random is NOT the guy I went to school with in Moscow and would fly back to russia for a wedding for.
The OP didn't say which group he'd classify his friends in, but if he thought it was pertinent enough to list them, than he had a close enough relationship to warrant listing them. Cause when OPM/FBI find out that you went to school for a year in Moscow and you didn't list any acquiescence's, they'll raise some flags and find what you are hiding.
You’ve not heard of the Russians assassinating people blatantly in other countries?
I’m sure that comes as a disappointment to the FSB given that they do it so blatantly to send a message that they can get you anywhere without repercussion.
This was an informative article and not filled with hysteria. I thought it was strange that the convict chose to go to prison rather than work for the FSB; it seems irrational to make that choice. Maybe it's hard to stop working for the FSB; can someone add context?
I see Russian computer network exploitation talent being recruited with far better methods than in the U.S., which is hamstrung by strict security clearance requirements, such as criminal records and drug abuse.
From what I speculate from the article, the Russian FSB and GRU manage to use the risky hires by using government contractors as intermediaries, and there compartmentalize information to a degree that the risky hires only know about the operation they perform. It appears that these hackers have a lot of latitude in their operations.
To contrast this with the U.S. model, the only way a person who isn't eligible for clearance to help is to sell their exploit to a broker and the DoD/CIA/FBI eventually buy it. This means only exploit developers even have the opportunity. Computer crime ex-convicts have to join a consultancy for business clients instead, despite having a good skill set.
It's called defecting if you committed that espionage for Russia or cooperated with their intelligence while there, which while not entirely impossible is not very likely either.
I'm also from a former soviet colony, but I have no sympathy for him, he'd be doing the same thing if he hadn't been caught.
Yeah, he'll be a cybersecurity consultant and he will help the US government to improve its security.
If you were in Russia you would know that it's not true) Most of FSB are really stupid and old fashioned. These people very far away from Tech, especially top officials. I'm not a fan of Putin either and truly believe that Russia deserves much better president with more liberal views (in a good way of course).
You know, if I lived in Russia right now, and some random person I never heard of started texting me and talking about the war, I'd at least have to consider the possibility that they were FSB, and guard my words accordingly.
Not saying that all the people you texted thought that way, but I'm not sure you can reach a definitive conclusion based on your experiment.
I was pretty confused, because the title mentions "FSB", but all of this discussion in this thread is about the US. I literally assumed that FSB must be an acronym for some US intelligence agency I don't know of. Then I went and read the article, and it really is about the Russian FSB.
The United States is not at war with Russia. Still, Russians who come here under false pretenses for the purpose of reporting to the GRU on American business and academia - even from civilian positions with no access to classified information - are clearly spies.
Yeah I found his problem in the first line of the article
> KrebsOnSecurity recently had occasion to contact the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The FSB is not equivalent to the FBI, it's the successor to the KGB. If it's equivalent to any other country's org, look to the Gestapo.
I carefully listed the Russians I knew under penalty of perjury. I've lost touch with most of them. I wasn't trying to turn them into agents, and they were patriotic Russians who liked me despite, not because of, me being American. The fact that they might be getting FSB attention now is sickening.
The fucking government, man. It really blows your mind sometimes.
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