Free Russia Foundation internal documents leaked, investigating cyberattack
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The Free Russia Foundation, an organization led by Natalia Arno, is reporting an investigation into a potential cyberattack after a large-scale leak of emails and documents related to its activities. Founded in 2014 by Russians in the U.S., the Free Russia Foundation advocates for a democratic Russia and has been labeled as an "undesirable" and "extremist" organization by the Russian Justice Ministry.
The leak was reported by the Telegram channel SOTA, which claimed that over 2,500 email chains and more than 13GB of electronic documents from the Free Russia Foundation and the U.S. Russia Foundation were published online.
The breach includes thousands of email chains, internal documents, and grant reports. Personal data from staff at the "elf factory" in Tbilisi, Georgia, a location where staff are reportedly paid to criticize Russian authorities and the war in Ukraine online, was also leaked.
The Free Russia Foundation suspects the involvement of Coldriver, a hacker group linked to the Kremlin, which has been responsible for recent cyberattacks targeting entities opposed to Russian government policies.
The foundation is monitoring the illegal dissemination of documents and has launched an investigation to determine the breach's origin, scope, and impact. It fears that this leak could be used as a pretext for a new wave of repression against pro-democracy activists and organizations opposing the Russian government.
