Living anonymously, down a winding road in the wilderness of western Siberia, not far from the Mongolian border, the only person so far implicated in the flurry of Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee and other political sites was obviously enjoying the moment. “We have the information, but nobody contacted us,” said Vladimir M. Fomenko, a tattooed 26-year-old who snowboards in his free time and runs a business out of a rented apartment. “It’s like nobody wants to sort this out,” he added with a sly grin. Mr. Fomenko was recently identified by an American cybersecurity company, ThreatConnect, as the manager of an “information nexus” that was used by hackers suspected of working for Russian state security in cyberattacks on democratic processes in several countries, including Germany, Turkey and Ukraine, as well as the United States. Rather than issuing blanket denials, Mr. Fomenko is apparently eager to discuss his case, lending another, if still cryptic, dimension to the intrigue, restricted before now to digital codes and online fingerprints.
Mr. Fomenko is the owner of a server rental company called King Servers used by hackers in an incursion on computerized election systems in Arizona and Illinois this year. Its other principal clients, he said, have been pornographers.
His response has been a blend of sarcasm, vague denials and an invitation to cooperate with the F.B.I., offering potentially critical evidence in the Arizona and Illinois cases, should officials reach out to him here.
“If the F.B.I. asks, we are ready to supply the I.P. addresses, the logs,” he said, referring to internet protocols, which identify a particular web page or device. “But nobody is asking. That is a big question.”
Full Article: A Voice Cuts Through, and Adds to, the Intrigue of Russia’s Cyberattacks – The New York Times.