Tag Archives: BadB

Adventures in Contacting the Russian FSB

June 7, 2021

KrebsOnSecurity recently had occasion to contact the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In the process of doing so, I encountered a small snag: The FSB’s website said in order to contact them securely, I needed to download and install an encryption and virtual private networking (VPN) appliance that is flagged by at least 20 antivirus products as malware.

The reason I contacted the FSB — one of the successor agencies to the Russian KGB — ironically enough had to do with security concerns raised about the FSB’s own preferred method of being contacted.

Reintroducing Scanlab (a.k.a Scamlab)

December 7, 2010

Many sites and services require customers to present “proof” of their identity online by presenting scanned copies of important documents, such as passports, utility bills, or diplomas. But these requests don’t really prove anything, as there are a number of online services that will happily forge these documents quite convincingly for a small fee.