In a number of files dumped on Github by the group “GhostShell”, in what they call #ProjectBlackStar, the hackers say to have acquired 2.5 million accounts and records from governmental departments, in addition to educational, academical, political, law enforcement, telecom, research institutes, medical facilities records and data from vast corporations.

In the Pastebin message which links to the file dumps, GhostShell says:

“For far too long Russia has been a state of tyranny and regret. The average citizen is forced to live an isolated life from the rest of the world imposed by it’s politicians and leaders. A way of thinking outdated for well over 100 years now. The still present communism feeling has fused with today’s capitalism and bred together a level of corruption and lack of decency of which we’ve never seen before. Even though the country is going through hard times and many people are starving, the Russian Government has enough resources to spend on its spies. [Linking to Business Insider] There have been many arrests this year (just like in any other year). If they think that espionage is fun while the people are barely holding on for their lives, then we’re going to play a little game as well.”

The group’s leader, DeadMellox, tweeted:

https://twitter.com/TeamGhostShell/status/264333622641831937

The Federal Security Service (FSB), a Russian intelligence service, was once known as the KGB following a reformation. The file dump includes a number of leaked names, passwords and email addresses that end incorp-gov.ru, and so seem to be from the Russian government — the common ‘qwerty’ password aside, it’s unclear however several of these are viable, active addresses.

Nevertheless, 37 of the file dumps are evidently from the Russian government directly, and many contain lists with hundreds of email address leaks.