German engineering and tech company Siemens has launched a probe into a Der Spiegel report that stated that a former programmer from Russian IT company NTC Vulkan worked for the company.
NTC Vulkan has reported links to Russian security services.
The German news magazine said the worker was now employed by Siemens in Munich and also reported that more than 90 former staff from NTC Vulkan worked for several other European companies.
The magazine said NTC Vulkan maintains close ties to all three major Russian intelligence services: FSB, GRU and SWR.
The magazine alleged NTC Vulkan builds cyber programmes for security services aimed at attacking critical infrastructure facilities.
An ex-chief developer of the company is working as a "senior software development engineer" at Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Dublin, Der Spiegel also reported.
