Group-IB
 | This article contains promotional content. (June 2026) |
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Cybercrime |
| Founded | Moscow, Russia |
| Founder | Dmitry Volkov Ilya Sachkov  |
| Headquarters | |
Key people |
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| Website | |
Group-IB is a cybersecurity company. It was founded in 2003 by Ilya Sachkov and Dmitry Volkov in Moscow, Russia.[1]
In 2023, it spun off its Russian operations with its operations outside Russia led by Dmitry Volkov, a Russian national, and based in Singapore, while the Russian entity continues operations in Moscow under the F.A.C.C.T. name.
History
[edit]Group-IB was founded in 2003 by Ilya Sachkov and Dmitry Volkov in Russia, to provide cybercrime investigations and digital forensics services.[2] In 2017, the company signed a data sharing agreement with INTERPOL, to coordinate the exchange of threat intelligence.[3] The company moved to Singapore in 2019.[4]
In 2019, the firm took 180,000 successful takedown requests for Game of Thrones, reported $3 million worth of fund stolen from a Dutch-Bangla Bank ATM, and reported Turkish payment card details were being sold online.[5][6][7]
In September 2021, Ilya Sachkov, its co-founder and CEO, was detained by Russian authorities for treason.[8] He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.[9] The Russian and international business were later split with the business sold in April 2023 to Russian management to be branded F.A.C.C.T.[10][11] F.A.C.C.T. would market Group-IB products and services while being a separate entity allowing Group-IB to not directly have a presence in Russia.[12] The move was reportedly because its Russian ties were hurting its business.[13] It was reported that despite the business split, founder Ilya Sachkov remained the primary shareholder of both companies.[14]
In December 2023, the company's Moscow spinoff F.A.C.C.T. discovered that a hacking group was targeting Russian companies with a war-related phishing attack.[15] According to Substack, the Group-IB based in Singapore continues to be headed by Dmitry Volkov, a Russian national.[16]
In August 2024, Group-IB investigated the Mobile Guardian security breach, and identified that over 300 account credentials related to the Mobile Guardian administration appeared for sale, 70 of which were on sale on the dark web.[17]
In July 2025, it was reported that Group-IB was acting as legal agent for Tencent, a company controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, in attempting to kill FreeWechat.com, an anti-censorship WeChat archive developed by Chinese censorship monitoring website GreatFire to enforce the Communist Party's Great Firewall.[16][18][19]
References
[edit]- ↑ Builov, Maxim; Isakova, Tatyana; Sherunkova, Olga (29 September 2021). "Неизменимых нет" [No one is unchangeable]. Kommersant (in Russian). Archived from the original on 12 December 2025. Retrieved 23 November 2025.
- ↑ "Dmitry Volkov, CEO of Group-IB". The CEO Magazine. Archived from the original on 16 June 2025. Retrieved 16 June 2025.
- ↑ Olenick, Doug (2 November 2017). "Group IB, INTERPOL sign data exchange agreement". scworld.com. Archived from the original on 11 June 2025. Retrieved 16 June 2025.
- ↑ "Russian cyber titan Group-IB makes Singapore home". Channel Asia. Archived from the original on 20 April 2024. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
- ↑ "Game of Thrones Piracy in Russia: 180,000 Takedowns, Mirror Wars & Capitulation * TorrentFreak". torrentfreak.com. Archived from the original on 16 October 2025. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
- ↑ "Russian 'Silence' hacking crew turns up the volume – with $3m-plus cyber-raid on bank's cash machines". Archived from the original on 19 May 2025. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
- ↑ "460,000 Turkish card details put up for sale, web skimmers suspected". ZDNET. Archived from the original on 13 July 2025. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
- ↑ "Russia detains cyber-security tycoon Ilya Sachkov in treason case". BBC. 29 September 2021. Archived from the original on 20 April 2024. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
- ↑ "Russian cybersecurity chief jailed for 14 years for treason". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 20 April 2024. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
- ↑ "Cyber firm Group-IB to split Russian, international businesses". Reuters. 6 July 2022. Archived from the original on 5 October 2023. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
- ↑ Marrow, Alexander (20 April 2023). "Cyber firm Group-IB finalizes Russia split to spur global ambitions". Reuters. Archived from the original on 1 August 2023. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
- ↑ "Security analyst wanted by both Russia and the US". The Register. Archived from the original on 21 November 2024. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
- ↑ Page, Carly (1 November 2023). "With its exit from Russia complete, Group-IB plans its US expansion". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 21 November 2024. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
- ↑ "F.A.C.C.T. created the Cybersecurity Center". TAdviser.ru. Archived from the original on 21 November 2024. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
- ↑ "Cyber-espionage group Cloud Atlas targets Russian companies with war-related phishing attacks". therecord.media. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
- 1 2 NetAskari (8 July 2025). "SLAPP: The "Stealthy Way" of Censorship". NetAskari. Archived from the original on 19 July 2025. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
- ↑ "Mobile Guardian breach: Protocols in place but more could be done, say experts". Channel NewsAsia. 9 August 2024. Archived from the original on 17 March 2026. Retrieved 31 March 2026.
- ↑ Sharwood, Simon (11 July 2025). "Chinese censorship-busters claim Tencent is trying to kill its WeChat archive". The Register. Archived from the original on 15 August 2025. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
- ↑ Dar, Khunsha (17 July 2025). "Chinese tech firm Tencent seeks removal of anti-censorship archive FreeWeChat, watchdog says". Hong Kong Free Press.