Moscow's Bauman University, the clandestine school training Russian hackers

Investigation According to 2,000 documents obtained by a consortium of international media, including Le Monde, the prestigious Bauman Moscow State Technical University has been discreetly training Russian military intelligence officers, particularly hackers.

At Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Daniil Porshin ranked among the top students. The 25-year-old engineering student's overall grades often came close to a perfect score throughout his years at the prestigious institution, from 2018 to 2024. But the young man from Irkutsk, in Siberia, who also played for the school football team, was not just a model student.

During his studies, Porshin did not just take classes titled "cryptography" or "computer network security," which are standard in cybersecurity training programs. He also learned how to "crack a password," "create a virus" and even "hack a server," suggesting more questionable career ambitions.

Upon graduating in 2024, the aspiring hacker secretly joined Unit 26165 of the GRU, the Russian military intelligence agency. Known as Fancy Bear or APT28, this group of Russian hackers is notably accused of hacking the French TV channel TV5 Monde in 2015 to broadcast jihadist propaganda; of stealing emails from Emmanuel Macron's team when he was a presidential candidate in early 2017; and, more recently, of targeting institutions involved in organizing the most recent Paris Olympic Games in 2024 .

Porshin did not respond to questions from Le Monde . That same year, 15 students with similar academic backgrounds also joined Russian military intelligence.