A computer expert who recently appeared in a Boston courtroom on federal hacking charges previously held a senior-level job at the well-known Moscow-based antivirus company Kaspersky Lab, according to a person with knowledge of the matter and records obtained by Reuters.
Denis Obrezko entered a not guilty plea last week to computer crime charges. Leaked salary records and a former coworker confirm he worked as a senior specialist at Kaspersky from 2017 to 2019. Federal prosecutors say that in the five years before joining Kaspersky, Obrezko worked for Russia’s domestic intelligence agency, the FSB.
While the hacking activity he’s accused of allegedly occurred after he departed Kaspersky, his connection to the company is expected to renew scrutiny of the antivirus firm’s relationship with the Russian government. Once a major player in the U.S. cybersecurity market, Kaspersky has been effectively pushed out of America after concerns arose about its alleged links to the Kremlin.
In an official statement, Kaspersky acknowledged his employment: “An employee with the name specified worked at the company between 2017-2019, and we have no information on the individual’s current status. The offenses charged cannot be related to the individual’s role or responsibilities during the employment at Kaspersky.”
Obrezko’s attorney, Max Nemtsev, said via email that he was unable to comment on his client’s work history. The FSB was unreachable for comment, and the Russian Embassy in Washington has not answered repeated inquiries about the case. Russia routinely denies any involvement in hacking operations.
Reuters was unable to pin down exactly what Obrezko did during his time at Kaspersky. A profile on the Russian social media platform VKontakte, linked to one of his email addresses, lists him as a graduate of Moscow’s Bauman University — a technical institution that a group of European journalists identified last year as a significant training hub for Russian government hackers. Both the VKontakte profile and leaked resume data indicate his area of study was information security. Bauman University did not respond to a request for comment.
Court documents filed by U.S. prosecutors allege that Obrezko was part of a newly uncovered hacking operation referred to as “Void Blizzard” or “Laundry Bear.” This group is accused of stealing large volumes of emails and other communications from government agencies in NATO-aligned European countries, as well as at least 11 U.S. companies, allegedly at the direction of the Russian government starting in 2023.
A federal indictment filed last week ties Void Blizzard to a Russian cybersecurity firm called Yutek-NN, where Obrezko served as deputy director beginning in 2024. The indictment made no reference to his earlier employment at Kaspersky — a connection being reported publicly for the first time here.
Yutek describes itself on its website as a wide-ranging IT company that employs “cutting-edge technology, innovative concepts, and creative design.” Russian corporate filings show the Nizhny Novgorod-based firm holds an FSB license to develop, sell, or obtain “special technical means for the covert acquisition of information.” Yutek did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Stefan Soesanto, a lecturer at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Switzerland, called the Obrezko prosecution “a vindication for all those that are already highly critical of Kaspersky.”
Kaspersky has long maintained that it operates independently of the Kremlin. Nevertheless, the U.S. Commerce Department banned the company’s software in 2024 on national security grounds, and European officials have also cautioned against its use.
Soesanto noted that the boundary between the private cybersecurity world and government intelligence agencies tends to be blurry, and that a back-and-forth flow of personnel between the two sectors isn’t exclusive to Russia or Kaspersky. “It’s really similar to how the U.S. works. It’s just that the Russians don’t really indict American former spies,” he said.
