The charges were filed under Article 275 of Russia's criminal code, an extraordinarily broad statute that opens individuals to treason charges for providing financial, technical, advisory, or other assistance to a foreign state or international organization that's considered hostile to the Russian government. Word of the arrest almost immediately ignited a flurry of speculation and concerns of a possibly chilling effect the action might have among security researchers. The country has reportedly suspended executions, and the last one was in 1996. It's not clear what the maximum penalty is for treason in Russia. All three involved financially motivated crime conducted inside of Russia. In the past 15 months, Stoyanov wrote three posts for Kaspersky Lab's Securelist blog.

The work of Kaspersky Lab's Computer Incidents Investigation Team is unaffected by these developments.' We do not possess details of the investigation. 'The employee, who is Head of the Computer Incidents Investigation Team, is under investigation for a period predating his employment at Kaspersky Lab. 'The case against this employee does not involve Kaspersky Lab,' company officials wrote in a statement issued following the report. His LinkedIn profile shows he served as a major in the cybercrime unit of Russia's Ministry of Interior from 2000 to 2006.

Stoyanov joined the Moscow-based AV company in 2012 and was chiefly involved in investigating and responding to hacking-related crimes carried out in Russia. The paper said that Sergei Mikhailov, a division head of the Russian intelligence service FSB, was also arrested in the same probe. Kaspersky LabRuslan Stoyanov, the head of Kaspersky Lab's investigations unit, was arrested in December, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported Wednesday.

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