London, Dec 8:
The UK Government on Thursday condemned repeated efforts by Russia’s secret service to compromise the private conversations of high-profile politicians, civil servants and journalists as it tried to interfere in the country’s political processes through hacking.
Centre 18, a unit within Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), has been identified as being accountable for a range of cyber espionage operations targeting the UK, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said.
It claimed that the UK, along with its allies, exposed a series of attempts by FSB to target high-profile individuals and entities through cyber operations and believed this was done with the intent to use information obtained to interfere in UK politics and democratic processes.
The Foreign Office summoned the Russian Ambassador to express the UK’s “deep concern about Russia’s sustained attempts to use cyber to interfere in political and democratic processes in the UK and beyond”.
“Russia’s attempts to interfere in UK politics are completely unacceptable and seek to threaten our democratic processes. Despite their repeated efforts, they have failed,” said UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron.
“In sanctioning those responsible and summoning the Russian Ambassador today, we are exposing their malign attempts at influence and shining a light on yet another example of how Russia chooses to operate on the global stage. We will continue to work together with our allies to expose Russian covert cyber activity and hold Russia to account for its actions,” he said.
In particular, FCDO said it has identified the FSB through activity conducted by Star Blizzard and involving: targeting, including spear-phishing, of parliamentarians from multiple political parties, from at least 2015 through to this year; the hack of UK-US trade documents that were leaked ahead of the 2019 general election; the 2018 hack of the Institute for Statecraft, a UK think tank whose work included initiatives to defend democracy against disinformation, and the more recent hack of its founder Christopher Donnelly, whose account was compromised from December 2021; and targeting of universities, journalists, public sector, NGOs and other civil society organisations, many of whom play a key role in UK democracy.
UK Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said: “As I warned earlier this year, state actors, and the ‘Wagner-style’ sub-state hackers they use to do their dirty work, will continue to target our public institutions and our democratic processes.
“We will continue to call this activity out, to raise our defences, and to take action against the perpetrators. Online is the new frontline. We are taking a whole-of-society approach to ensuring we have the robust systems and cutting-edge skills needed to resist these attempts to undermine our democracy.”
