Russian Rostec has allegedly purchased a platform that allows the identities of anonymous Telegram users to be revealed. Rostec is a state Russian defense conglomerate for technology and defense systems.
According to a report in the Russian newspaper The Bell, obtained by Bleeping Computer, one of Rostec’s subsidiaries has developed a tool, Okhotnik, which can allegedly reveal the identity of Telegram users by combining data from multiple sources.
The data points are drawn from social networks, blogs, forums, instant messaging, bulletin boards, cryptocurrency blockchains, the darknet and government services and include names, nicknames, email addresses, websites, domains, crypto loans, encryption keys, phone numbers, geographic information, IP addresses and more.
Rostec reportedly plans to sell the tool to the Russian Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service (FSB).