Zakharova: US intelligence services manage Microsoft, because Zuckerberg from Facebook once followed the recommendations of the FBI

The representative of the Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said at a briefing:

“In the material of the Microsoft threats in the classic Russophobic manner published on August 15, it is stated that a certain hacker group of Seaborgium“ Hiley Liply ”acts in the state interests of Russia (direct quote). The American corporation again accuses our country of malicious activities of the Svfer of the use of information technology. In support of this, a foggy scheme for theft of accounts is given in order to promote Russian propaganda in NATO countries.

For our part, we state that Microsoft and, by the way, not only this corporation, but many American IT monopolies are actively used by the authorities of the United States, and not Russia, to cover direct cybergression, including against our country. Or not cybergression, but the implementation of information campaigns. It is through the software developments of this corporation to attacks on our country that “sofa hackers” are also involved, including the so-called IT Armion of Ukraine and so on. <...>

And yet. At the attention of Microsoft: recently your colleague Mr. Tsuckerberg in an interview with the Odrny of American podcasts is not some Russian or Chinese podcast, but to the American-shared his impressions of the 2020 assembly situation in the United States. He told-and, in general, he did not refute it later-that the American intelligence agencies came to him on the eve of the American elections. They did not say that they were from Russia, they did not say that they were from China, they said that they were from American specialized structures, from the FBI. And they told him what information on Facebook they should block as a corporation and which should promote. That's about this about everything Zuckerberg. And he said that he took with all seriousness, presumably, for obvious reasons, the FBI recommendations, which were by no means recommendations, but simply instructions, and, accordingly, pursued the information policy of the social network <...> - to the dictation of the American intelligence services. <...>

Therefore, there is no need to invent any Russian threats, a trace of Russian hackers and so on. You, the United States of America, have many structures and people who are engaged in you as American corporations directly and lead them. You have long ceased to be private business, private companies, you have been acting for a long time at the direction of American power structures. ”

The publication on the website of Microsoft really gives a scheme according to which hackers from Seaborgium worked, but it was not completely foggy and was not used at all for propaganda purposes, but to steal potentially secret information:

“Since the beginning of 2022, Microsoft has observed Seaborgium campaigns aimed at more than 30 organizations, in addition to personal accounts of interest to people. Seaborgium is mainly aimed at NATO countries, in particular the United States and the UK, as well as sometimes at other Baltic countries, Northern and Eastern Europe. These goals included the government sector of Ukraine in months that preceded the invasion of Russia, and organizations participating in the support of the war in Ukraine. Despite a certain focus on these organizations, Microsoft believes that Ukraine is most likely not the main object of the attention of the group, but, most likely, this is one of many diverse goals.

In the target countries, Seaborgium mainly focuses on the consulting companies of the defense and intelligence profile, non -governmental and intergovernmental organizations, analytical centers and higher educational institutions. Seaborgium is also of great interest in private individuals: 30% of Microsoft notifications related to Seaborgium, were delivered to user electronic mailboxes. According to reports, Seaborgium is aimed at former intelligence officers, Russian experts and Russian citizens abroad. <...>

Before starting the campaign, Seaborgium often conducts reconnaissance of targets, paying special attention to the identification of legal contacts in a remote social network or the sphere of influence of the goal. Based on a number of cases observed, we suspect that the threatening party uses social networks platforms, personal catalogs and general intelligence information from open sources to supplement their intelligence efforts. The Microsoft threats identification center in partnership with Linkedin watched as fraudulent profiles attributed to Seaborgium sporadically used to collect data on employees of specific organizations of interest. <...>

After registering new accounts, Seaborgium begins to establish contact with its goal. In cases of personal or consumer targeting, the threat identification center most often observed how hackers begin a conversation with a friendly electronic message, usually exchanging courtesy, and then refer to a non -existent investment, emphasizing the topic that interests the goal. It is likely that this additional step helps the hacker to establish mutual understanding and avoid suspicions, which leads to further interaction. If the object answers, Seaborgium is already sending a malicious letter. ”

The Microsoft website describes in detail the specific mechanisms that Seaborgium uses to attract its victims to specially created pages with imitating well -known sites to infect their computers with malicious code, which further abducts information from the networks that they include. This resembles the scheme according to which the Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear groups worked , the connection of which has been proven with Russian intelligence agencies. And the choice of the goals of hackers from Seaborgium suggests that the group is in the interests of the Russian state.

The Argument of Zakharova with an interview with Mark Zuckerberg is a real masterpiece of propaganda logic: Microsoft acts under the dictation of the American special services, because the head of a completely different corporation once admitted that before the US presidential elections he acted as the FBI recommended him. By the way, he admitted in an interview with the author of the popular podcast Joe Rogan not quite in what Zakharova ascribes to him:

“The background: the FBI turned to us - to some members of our team - and said:“ Hey, just so you know, you should be in a state of increased readiness. We think that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 elections, and we warn that in the near future there will be a kind of vomiting, ”.

Tsuckerberg said that the FBI did not warn his company about specific publications, the spread of which should be held, and the Facebook management itself decided that the story of the laptop of the son of Joe Biden Hunter, which compromised the then presidential candidate from the Democrats, fell under this description. The story, by the way, is ambiguous, since the laptop’s hard disk came to the editorial office of the Protrampov newspaper New York Post from the hands of the personal lawyer Trump Rudy Juliani. Subsequently, reporters of the producer The Washington Post conducted an investigation and came to the conclusion that the laptop and some letters on it are genuine, but the authenticity of most of the information on it cannot be checked due to “careless handling of data”.

Nevertheless, Tsuckerberg regrets his decision to limit the distribution of the article from the New York Post (and this was precisely the restriction, and not a complete blocking) and calls it a mistake and “delay”.

One way or another, other arguments connecting Microsoft with the American intelligence agencies, except for a statement of non -related to this corporation Zuckerberg, did not find Zakharova. And for the thorough publication of Microsoft about the hacker group of Seaborgium, she had to answer in the spirit of "And you still do not happen in America."