Pavel Durov seems to be creating a competitor of his own instant messenger, Telegram, if judging by a new version – christened Telegram HD – which appeared in the Apple AppStore on July 21. The app is registered to the company Telegram Messenger LLP and all links to the Telegram app for iPhone on the messenger’s official website lead …
Access to online services of the Mail.ru Group has been blocked in Italy by order of a Roman court. The Russian portal is on a list of 25 websites, along with filesharing and video streaming sites, that face allegations of piracy, Mail.ru Group reports. The group stated that it became aware of the problem after …
Mail.ru Group sites blocked in Italy over piracy allegation Read More
Russia has witnessed its first case brought by the federal customs service against a local resident for trying to order a smartphone from a foreign online store. Eugene Yarutkin, a resident of Dimitrovgrad (Ulyanovsk region), was given the dubious honor when he ordered a Motorola Moto G with a data encryption feature from a German …
First charge recorded in a non-FSB-sanctioned foreign smartphone purchase Read More
Founder of Russian social network Vkontakte Pavel Durov has filed a lawsuit in the US against his former partners in the project and a fund with a stake of almost 50 percent in Vkontakte. He accuses them of fraud and of extorting a stake in the instant messaging application Telegram. Durov and his two companies …
After an investigation initiated by the security service of Sberbank, Russia’s national savings bank, the activities of an organized criminal group of hackers that specialize in stealing money from the bank accounts of companies have been suppressed. This was achieved thanks to joint efforts by the Bureau of Special Technical Measures (BSTM) and the Russian FSB Information …
Russian hackers get jail time for online banking thefts Read More
Last week, following Pavel Durov’s dismissal as CEO and exit from Russia – a country which he now judges “incompatible with Internet business,” – Vkontakte shareholder United Capital Partners (UCP) released a statement about these latest developments. The fund, which acquired a 48% stake in the social network one year ago, describes Durov’s move as “an attempt to present …
Pavel Durov flees lawsuits, not politics, claims UCP Read More
What started a year ago as a shareholder dispute within VKontakte (VK.com), Russia’s largest social network, appears to be emerging as a full-blown war of litigation. The faction most actively fanning the legal flames is United Capital Partners (UCP), a major Russian fund active in various sectors that acquired a 48% stake in VK a …
Three international music record labels have taken the offensive in another attempt to challenge online piracy in Russia, international industry association IFPI reported. Once again the target is Vkontakte (also known as VK.com), the former Soviet Union’s third most visited website and leading social network. Sony Music Russia, Universal Music Russia and Warner Music UK filed three separate …
Global record labels take Vkontakte into Russian court as music piracy continues Read More
A man was sentenced to probation after being convicted for Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks as a result of Group-IB and the The Ministry of the Interior (MVD) collaboration work. Group-IB assisted in the investigation, collection, preservation and identification of digital evidence. The criminal business owner turned out to be a 26-year-old resident of …
26-year-old hacker responsible for massive DDoS-attacks sentenced in Russia Read More
The Vkontakte shareholder drama saw new developments yesterday as United Capital Partners (UCP), which acquired a 48% stake in the social network last year, announced that it is suing the company’s two other shareholders in Russian and international jurisdictions. The Russian fund is accusing Mail.ru Group and Ivan Tavrin – who bought his 12% stake …
Vkontakte shareholder drama continues: UCP to sue Mail.ru Group and Ivan Tavrin Read More
More than 1,800 instances of the government-led abuse of Russian Internet users’ rights for unrestricted access to web-based information last year were brought to light in a muckraking report issued last week by a Russian civil rights group. Agora, an interregional association of Russian civil rights NGOs set up in 2005 to bring together lawyers …
Civil activists expose violations of Internet freedom across Russia Read More
Roskomnadzor, Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, has judged it impossible at this stage to block access to Looo.ch, a website that offers a bilingual “Illustrated Textbook on Homosexuality for Kids” – a satire on homophobia in Russia and Ukraine. “If a boy with a boy is OK, then …
Regulator fails to ban site offering satirical pro-gay “textbook for kids” Read More
