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Federal Security Service of Russia

Russia's principal domestic security and intelligence agency, successor to the KGB, responsible for counterintelligence, counterterrorism, and cyber operations.

Known aliases

  • Center 18
  • Federal Security Service
  • FSB Center 18
  • FSB Centre 18

Current stories

scienceOne report1 publisher

Russia ended its Irkutsk plague quarantine without explaining the death that started it

Rospotrebnadzor ended its quarantine on 7 October and freed most of the nearly 200 people held over a lab worker's death, after tests found no dangerous pathogen. What killed 28-year-old Daria Shipilova, and why the response far exceeded plague protocol, remains unexplained.

Publishers:newscientist.com

Reality

Evidence42
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap−8
Incentives35
Confidence38
securityConfirmed7 publishers

Star Blizzard now sends its Ukraine lures from hacked WordPress and cPanel sites

Microsoft says Star Blizzard has sent fake event invitations to more than 100 organizations since January, many from hacked WordPress and cPanel sites. The group, long known for stealing email passwords, now uses the messages to install a Windows backdoor.

Perspective Coverage

8 publishers
Builder
Builder 28%
Operator
Operator 62%
Investor
Investor 10%

Reality

Evidence66
Adoption35
Hype gap+18
Incentives35
Confidence70
buildOne report1 publisher

Star Blizzard now delivers the CosmicPulse backdoor through fake event invitations

Microsoft says Russia's FSB-linked Star Blizzard sent fake event invitations to more than 100 organizations since January 2026. The lures pose as Chatham House and Atlantic Council events and carry a new Python backdoor, CosmicPulse, aimed at people working on Ukraine.

Publishers:dev.to

Reality

Evidence60
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+20
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence62
securityOne report1 publisher

DOJ charges Oxygen Forensics leaders with hiding the Russian ownership behind their forensic tools

US prosecutors charged Oxygen Forensics' CEO and a co-founder with hiding that five Russians owned the forensic firm and that its software was Russian-built. Police in seven EU states bought or accredited the tool, two of them this September.

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption60
Hype gap+25
Incentives55
Confidence50
investOne report1 publisher

Binance handed Russia's FSB the donor trail in a $6,500 terrorism case

A data-sharing arrangement struck with Rosfinmonitoring in 2021 turned exchange records into evidence. The sum at issue was roughly $6,500.

Reality

Evidence26
Adoption18
Hype gap+34
Incentives66
Confidence28