• Businessweek, Wednesday, July 14, 2010 12:26 PM

Abort Mission Microsoft! We've Been Compromised! ... Microsoft said Wednesday that it employed the 12th alleged member of the Russian spy ring that, until recently, was secretly operating in the U.S. The man, a Russian citizen in his early 20s named Alexey Karetnikov, worked for Microsoft as a software tester for about nine months, the software giant told Bloomberg/Businessweek Wednesday.

Earlier this month, ten members of the spy ring pleaded guilty to conspiring to serve as unregistered foreign agents. "They admitted to carrying money or coded messages, secretly communicating with Russian officials and instructing others on how to find information useful to Russia," reports Bloomberg/Businessweek. "Their objective was to infiltrate U.S. policy-making circles after constructing false American identities, prosecutors said." At Microsoft, whether Karetnikov engaged in any activities other than those outlined in his job description is not yet known.

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