WikiLeaks reveals cooperation between Russian billing company and country’s security services

WikiLeaks revealed Wednesday that a St. Petersburg based company cooperated with Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), the Interior Ministry and Russian surveillance contractors, offering proof of a surveillance infrastructure enforced by Russia.

The billing company in question, Peter-Service, provides 200 million customers with communication services, according to its website. Wikileaks stated that Peter-Service provided the country's security services with metadata on subscribers of mobile operators.

"The technologies developed and deployed by PETER-SERVICE today go far beyond the classical billing process and extend into the realms of surveillance and control," WikiLeaks said, adding that Peter-Service has been seeking "partnership and commercial opportunities with the state intelligence apparatus."

"The data retention system is a mandatory component for operators by law; it stores all communication (meta-) data locally for three years. State intelligence authorities use the Protocol 538 adapter built into the DRS to access stored information" WikiLeaks added.

Peter-Service has also developed a system called TDM (Traffic Data Mart), which records and monitors IP traffic for all mobile devices registered with the operator. This program allows agencies to control online activity of the person, including social media and visited websites.

"Based on the collected information the system allows the creation of reports for subscriber devices (identified by IMEI/TAC, brand, model) for a specified time range: Top categories by volume, top sites by volume, top sites by time spent, protocol usage (browsing, mail, telephony, bit torrent) and traffic/time distribution," WikiLeaks claimed.

To support claims, WikiLeaks published 34 documents related to Peter-Service dated between 2007 and 2015.