This week, Russian hacking group Digital Revolution leaked documents it claims to have pilfered from a company building a cyberweapon for the FSB, the Russian intelligence agency. ZDNet reporters who have seen the leaked data said the documents charge Russian company InformInvestGroup CJSC with accepting an order from the FSB to create an IoT botnet inspired by the notorious Mirai botnet of 2016. Timestamps show the project, called “Fronton,” began in 2017. The documents themselves come from ODT (Oday) LLC, the subcontractor hired by InformInvestGroup CJSC to develop the malware. This type of governmental outsourcing is common, according to Avast security evangelist Luis Corrons. “While most countries in the world focus mainly on defense, a few others like the US, Russia, China, and North Korea, have powerful offensive capacities. This leak just confirms what we already knew – intelligence agencies outsource to develop the malware they use.”
