Group-IB
 | |
| Company 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
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 and received support from the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore.[4]
In 2019, the firm took 180,000 successful takedown request 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 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][17][18]
References
- ^ Builov, Maxim; Isakova, Tatyana; Sherunkova, Olga (29 September 2021). "Неизменимых нет" [No one is unchangeable]. Kommersant (in Russian).
- ^ "Dmitry Volkov, CEO of Group-IB". The CEO Magazine.
- ^ Olenick, Doug (2 November 2017). "Group IB, INTERPOL sign data exchange agreement". scworld.com.
- ^ "Russian cyber titan Group-IB makes Singapore home". Channel Asia. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
- ^ "Game of Thrones Piracy in Russia: 180,000 Takedowns, Mirror Wars & Capitulation * TorrentFreak". torrentfreak.com. 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. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
- ^ "Russia detains cyber-security tycoon Ilya Sachkov in treason case". BBC. 29 September 2021. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
- ^ "Russian cybersecurity chief jailed for 14 years for treason". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
- ^ "Cyber firm Group-IB to split Russian, international businesses". Reuters. 6 July 2022.
- ^ Marrow, Alexander (20 April 2023). "Cyber firm Group-IB finalizes Russia split to spur global ambitions". Reuters.
- ^ "Security analyst wanted by both Russia and the US". The Register.
- ^ Page, Carly (1 November 2023). "With its exit from Russia complete, Group-IB plans its US expansion". TechCrunch.
- ^ "F.A.C.C.T. created the Cybersecurity Center". TAdviser.ru. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
- ^ "Cyber-espionage group Cloud Atlas targets Russian companies with war-related phishing attacks". therecord.media. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
- ^ a b NetAskari (8 July 2025). "SLAPP: The "Stealthy Way" of Censorship". NetAskari. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
- ^ Sharwood, Simon (11 July 2025). "Chinese censorship-busters claim Tencent is trying to kill its WeChat archive". The Register.
- ^ Dar, Khunsha (17 July 2025). "Chinese tech firm Tencent seeks removal of anti-censorship archive FreeWeChat, watchdog says". Hong Kong Free Press.