Group-IB, a global cybersecurity leader, is exiting the Russian market, marking the completion of the second stage of its regional business diversification strategy announced in July 2022. The company’s co-founder and CEO, Dmitry Volkov, sold his stake in Group-IB’s Russia-based business to the company’s local management, and the stand-alone Russian business has been sold to local management and will operate under the new brand F.A.C.C.T. Group-IB’s branding and trademarks will cease to be in operation in Russia by the end of 2023. However, Group-IB is committed to creating a global, decentralized network of independent Digital Crime Resistance Centers (DCRC), with three DCRCs already operating in Singapore, Dubai, and Amsterdam. The company plans to open new DCRCs in Thailand and Saudi Arabia in 2023 and India in 2024.

The move by Group-IB has been seen as a strategic decision to focus on non-Russian markets to ensure that local governments, businesses, and people feel more secure in the digital space. The company has a zero-tolerance policy towards cybercrime and participates regularly in anti-digital crime operations, sharing intelligence data on cybercriminals’ infrastructure, methods, and tools with global law enforcement agencies. Group-IB’s proprietary Unified Risk Platform and other key technologies remain the property of Group-IB Global Private Ltd. (Singapore), which has the sole right to use all of the company’s technologies subject to patents in Singapore, the Netherlands, and the United States of America.

The company’s commitment to fighting cybercrime has made it the most influential force in this global campaign. It was named an official Europol partner in 2015, and two years later, it signed an agreement with INTERPOL to become an official private-sector partner of the international crime-fighting organization. Group-IB products are recognized by Gartner, Forrester, Frost & Sullivan, and other leading independent consultancy and advisory firms.

With the exit from the Russian market, Group-IB is now focused on expanding its presence in the Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern markets, where it intends to open new DCRCs to protect its clients against sophisticated targeted attacks, phishing, fraud, scams, and intellectual property violations. The company’s long-term strategy is to create a global, decentralized network of independent DCRCs, each equipped with the expertise to assess the local specificities and threat landscape of the region they are based in.