Alexander, dressed in a jumper with Christmas reindeer sitting at the Riga bar. He came to tell the amazing story. According to him, he is the last remaining free member of the most scandalous Russian gang of hackers and whistleblowers.
“Humpty Dumpty” nearly three years terrorized by Russian officials, combining hacking, information leaks and blackmail, while maintaining an impenetrable veil of anonymity. This group has posted samples of electronic correspondence of the officials whose emails they were able to crack, and the rest was put up for sale. After that incriminating information could redeem the sender of the emails or his enemies.
But in mid-December, a scathing headlines “Humpty Dumpty” suddenly ceased, and at the end of January, the Russian media told about the arrest of the founder of this project, named Vladimir Anikeev.
The case became even more intriguing when the media reported the arrest of two senior leaders of the FSB involved in cybersecurity issues, as well as specialists from the Russian cyber security firm “Kaspersky Lab”. Sources informed the Russian media that the FSB officers accused of working for the CIA, and also attributed it to the “Humpty-Dumpty”.
These arrests are surprising because it happened almost immediately after American intelligence agencies pointed the finger at Russian intelligence, accusing it of hacker attacks on the Democratic party, carried out in particular in order to help Donald Trump win the election. What was the “Humpty Dumpty”: a channel for transmitting information to the CIA? Or these two cases are mixed in order to conceal the truth about the reasons for the detention of the FSB agents? The rumor mill began to spin at breakneck speed, and every day brought new leaks and new theories of varying degrees of credibility.
Zatrollit The Kremlin
And then there is 39-year-old Alexander, who asked not to call his name. To fully verify his story on the true impossible, but he showed a screenshot of the correspondence between 2015 and Guardian of this hacker group, and also pictures, which he removed along with Anikeyev. He also rightly noted that when the author of this article in 2015, met with a representative of “Humpty Dumpty” on Board the ship in one of the European capitals, they were drinking whiskey.
According to Alexander, he is familiar with Anikeyev more than 10 years, and this man was the main organizer and inspirer of the project. At the end of 2013 Anikeev, who worked in a St. Petersburg Agency that specialized in “black PR”, invited him to jointly set up a new website to put the stolen correspondence of senior officials. Alexander by that time had bothered to engage a marketing communications company, and he agreed.
“I thought it would be nice zatrollit the Kremlin and try to change something in the country, — said Alexander. But it [take it] also said that we can earn in this business.” The first revelatory information, published in “Humpty-Dumpty” really had a political subtext. It was a letter, which describes in detail the involvement of Moscow for fomenting unrest in Eastern Ukraine.
Alexander said Anikeev was not an outstanding hacker (“He didn’t even know how to use a VPN connection and I had to show him”). He just paid anonymous hackers on the web forums for passwords from mailboxes of Russian officials.
According to Alexander, his work consisted in the analysis of the correspondence and writing blogposts. Anikeev paid him a share of the monthly earnings depended on the success achieved website. From time to time they met in person, often in Thailand, but in other cases, the exchanged encoded messages. According to Alexander, during the three years of operation of the site, his income amounted to between one and two million dollars.
Over time, the nature of the activities of “Humpty Dumpty” has changed, and hackers have moved from political declarations to elementary extortion.
This group used an “information exchange”, created by an anonymous third party to sell their goods for bitcoins. Hackers didn’t know who sell information: the victim of his hacks, or to someone else.
“We’re just like WikiLeaks, but we the people can get a solid reward for your information,” — said an anonymous author in response to a letter sent to the address of the information exchange. He (she) also confirmed that Alexander was a member of the “Humpty Dumpty”.
Arrest Anikeeva
Alexander said that last year Anikeev went to Russia for a meeting with the employee of FSB, having received security guarantees. The officer said that “Humpty Dumpty” can continue its work, but the FSB should have the right of veto, and the ability to arrange through this site of information leakage.
Alexander said: “Anikeev told me that the FSB knows who we are, but they can’t touch us, if we cooperate with them”.
In November Anikeev again went to Russia, but this time he was arrested. Perhaps the arrangement fell through, and maybe it caught the agents of the other intelligence agencies. On competition between the multiple Russian intelligence services are well known.
A few days after the disappearance Anikeev got in touch with Alexander and said that he was released, and “Humpty Dumpty” will continue its work. “But under the terms of the agreement, we were supposed to be based in Moscow, and he asked me to move there,” said Alexander.
It was quite strange, and so Alexander asked do on Anikeeva pressure. He said no, and used the special code word that was supposed to say in case of arrest.
In order to ensure that Anikeev really free, Alexander asked him to go to Moscow in a French cafe “Jean-Jacques”, to make it a selfie and a picture of a check. After a couple of hours Anikeev sent him these pictures. Then Alexander called the cafe and asked the waitress how many people were sitting at table five, which was specified in the check. One man, she said.
After that, take daily been online for a couple of hours. The other two members of this group moved to Moscow, but Alexander still had doubts. “For some reason, this whole story stinks like rotten fish. I told him that Moscow will not go, and that I quit.”
Apparently, the other two members of this group are now under arrest. In December Anikeev was gone, and the accounts “Humpty Dumpty” has ceased to function. Alexander blocked. And at the end of January the news broke about the arrests.
“Humpty Dumpty” and missing pieces of the puzzle
According to Alexander, at the time he was in Asia, but last week arrived in Estonia. However, before he contacted verified person and asked him for money to view the Interpol to check if it made Russia in the lists of wanted persons. At a meeting with the correspondent of the Guardian, he arrived in Riga. According to Alexander, he wants to ask in Estonia refuge and have already contacted the journalists, which in the past met the members of the “Humpty Dumpty”.
If the story of Alexander is true, it is an important piece in the puzzle called “Humpty Dumpty”. But there are still many gaps and missing links.
Did the take it to entice their friends and colleagues in Moscow a trap? If he was associated with arrested people from the FSB, and how? And could it be a coincidence the fact that as soon as American intelligence has accused Russia of hacking the action in the elections, on charges of treason were arrested two senior leaders of special services, who allegedly passed secret information to the Americans?
Anikeeva’s lawyer Ruslan Koblev told the Guardian that in his opinion, he is behind bars since his arrest in November. This indicates that all contacts with other people Anikeev was carried out under the supervision of counterintelligence. In November Koblev said with Anikeyev on the phone, and he had a strong belief that he is in custody.
Koblev said Anikeev in words agreed with the accusation of illegal access to computer information, however, denied any connection with the case of treason.
“There is no connection with the case of the FSB; I was very concerned when I saw this information in the media. I asked him [Anikeeva] whether there is some connection, and he said he didn’t even know these people. This is a different case”, — said Koblev. He added that investigators in two cases are also different.
This confirms the lawyer Ivan Pavlov, specializing in cases of high treason. According to him, he’s defending one of the accused in this case, however, Pavlov never said who it was. He said Guardian that he could not share details about the case, but confirmed that American intelligence appears in it. Pavlov added that his client intends to deny the charges.
“In the documents that I have read, there is no mention of “Humpty-Boltai”” he said.
According to Alexander, it is theoretically arrested by the FSB may be those people with whom Anikeev met in may last year. “He might know these people from the FSB, but I can’t believe they were arrested for. It seems that there are more serious things”, he said.
Speaking about his own role in this project, Alexander acknowledged that it was started as political but eventually became a mercenary.
“Especially last year there was all about money, and I regret my participation, he said. But it gave me the opportunity to have a small influence on politics. Maybe when they write the history of Russia, there will insert a couple of lines about the “Humpty-Boltai””.
In the preparation of this article participated Alec moon (Alec Luhn).
