This conspiracy has been debunked. The VIPS statement you linked to doesn't name their "independent cybersecurity" source, which was later proven to be the work of UK trolls:

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180802/07182740351/as-dn...

How is that a debunking? Sure, it points out an asinine argument but it's certainly not disproving anything.

It's proving their source was false, which was the premise of their entire argument, effectively debunking it.

Here's more information in another comment in this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22369830

I don't mean to be condescending but perhaps you should continue your research. All of the stuff you're posting has been widely and thoroughly debunked. Additionally, you should think about which sources pushed this debunked information upon you. Are those trustworthy news sources?

I thought Hacker News had higher quality commenters than reddit, but lately I've been getting more and more disappointed.

(Not with you but with the likes of Seth Rich-conspiracy-theory spreading idiots).

I keep seeing people say it's debunked but their source for that is a news article that looks no different than my sources that doesn't provide convincing evidence in my opinion. Maybe you should continue your research on your debunking sources and think who pushed that theory onto you

That HN comment was debunked as well. See the response in the thread.

Again, this has been debunked, multiple times. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170814/11490537992/stori...