“The .zip archive was hosted on a government site. Access to the archive was free. On July 1, at least from 9am to 12pm Moscow time, anyone could download it.”
The file was password-protected, but Meduza wrote that the photograph it received also informed recipients of the password.
However, it added that widely available password-cracking software “took a couple of days” to gain access to the file using a PC fitted with “an old Intel Core i3-4160 processor.”