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A dozen major American media and Internet outlets hired a Russian company called EastBanc Technologies to help with IT and web services, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation. The companies include The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, Slate, Facebook, AOL, Comcast and U.S. News & World Report.

Former U.S. intelligence officers slammed the media companies for hypocrisy in retaining a Russian firm while criticizing others who have even tangential ties to Russians. They also considered their decision to trust their web back-end to a foreign-based company naive.

“This clearly is a hypocrisy issue,” retired Col. James Waurishuk, a former deputy director for intelligence at the U.S. Central Command and a senior national security analyst with the National Security Counsel under President George H.W. Bush, told TheDCNF. “All of the media companies have reported Trump and the Russian collusion story that all things Russians are bad. So why are they doing business with a Russian company?”

 
  

EastBanc is based and incorporated in Washington, D.C. On the surface, it appears to be a successful stand-alone American IT company. The company provides many traditional tech services including data analytics, cloud services and business intelligence, according to the company’s U.S. website.

But a counterpart company, also called EastBanc, is based in Novosibirsk, Russia, a city in Siberia.

“The company’s office is located in the Academgorodok of Novosibirsk,” the company’s Russian-language website said. “There are more than 100 specialists in the staff.”

The relationship between the two firms could be found in a 2014 powerpoint presentation produced by EastBanc. It posted the Russian and U.S. officers side-by-side along with their American and Russian clients.

 

Since the 2016 presidential election, America media companies have slammed the Trump administration for its ties to Russian individuals, operations, enterprises and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Politico Magazine’s April/May 2018 issue, for example, produced a graphic depicting the alleged web of ties between Trump and Russia, asking “What is the real story of Donald Trump and Russia?” The news magazine said, “there’s no doubt that a spider web of connections—some public, some private, some clear, some murky—exists between Trump, his associates and Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

American media and Internet companies constitute EastBanc’s single largest client sector, comprising 12 out of 54 listed customers. About a quarter of its clients listed on its American website are media and Internet companies.

J. Michael Waller, who is on the editorial board of NATO’s Defense Strategy Communications Journal, which examines Russia’s use of media and the Internet, told TheDCNF the ability to enter the back end of media companies could provide a treasure trove of sensitive and even classified information to the Russians.

“Let’s say you’re Newsweek. And you have a reporter who’s been there for a long time, who has built his career with sources within the CIA,” he told TheDCNF. “Wouldn’t you, if you were Russian intelligence, want to know who his sources are within the CIA?”

Former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Paul Rosen warned at a September 2017 C-Tech forum that media and broadcast companies are high targets for foreign-based cyberattacks.

“Broadcast and media companies, like so many others, are seeing two things – an increased frequency of cyber-attacks, and an enhanced sophistication and complexity to such attacks,” he told the conference.

Other former intelligence officials expressed surprise media companies were naive to hire a Russian firm to conduct sensitive, backend IT services for their web sites.

“From a counterintelligence standpoint, they are showing either a level of ignorance or a lack of concern,” D.W. Wilbur, who for 30 years served in the CIA and the Department of Defense, told TheDCNF. “The reality is that anybody in the intelligence world knows that if you’re dealing with anything Russian, the hand of Vladimir Putin is involved. There’s no doubt about it.”

“It’s another example that they are not only ill-informed about the potential threats our adversaries pose,” he continued. “They seem unconcerned about it, showing a considerable amount of naivete.”

Nick Banks, who served four tours of duty as a CIA station chief during the Cold War, said t0 TheDCNF:

“With so many U.S.-owned IT companies to choose from, why would these American media companies knowingly use one that is connected directly to Russia? It doesn’t make much sense. But if the media companies are aware of EastBanc’s Russian connection, they certainly have no business attacking others.”

U.S. News was the only media company to respond to TheDCNF’s inquiries about relationships with the Russian company. The media outlet knowingly relied on Russian-based technicians.

“U.S. News used EastBanc for website development, back in 2011 through 2014,” Chief Operating Officer Karen Chevalier told TheDCNF in an email. “We used a combination of onsite and offs**** consultants who were based in Russia.”

EastBanc Technology refused repeated requests from TheDCNF to tour their offices, which appears as a bunker-like office sandwiched between a U.S. Post Office and a Brooks Brothers clothing store in tony Georgetown. It also did not respond to requests to interview a company representative about its work.

The Washington Post appears to have used EastBanc for at least five services the news outlet offers, according to the company’s website. WaPo hired EastBanc to develop apps for its sightseeing and Going-Out guides, to create its social job site and to integrate videos for streaming through Chromecast.

EastBanc’s also helped WaPo develop apps for iPad and Android tablets.

WaPo’s relationship to EastBanc also appears intertwined in other ways. Catherine Paganini is EastBanc Technologies’ marketing director. She previously worked at WaPo where she served as its International Marketing Specialist, according to her LinkedIn page. Maxim Ingnatyev, who is EastBanc’s senior software engineer, was the “lead Android developer” at WaPo, according to LinkedIn.

WaPo did not respond to several DCNF requests for comments about its contractural relationship with EastBanc.

WaPo’s editorial board has warned about Russian cyber warfare of computer networks. One of its latest warnings was posted in April after the Department of Homeland Security issued an alert in April 2018.

http://dailycaller.com/2018/05...edia-hired-russians/

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