UK summons Russian ambassador over tapping on British politicians

BIRMINGHAM, England

Private conversations of high-profile politicians and civil servants have been compromised by Russian security service during “sustained” attempts to interfere in British politics, Foreign Office minister Leo Docherty told the House of Commons on Thursday.

In his statement to the parliament, Docherty said a cyber-influence campaign by a group known as Star Blizzard, which is “almost certainly” a subordinate of a Russian security service FSB cyber unit, has “selectively leaked and amplified information” since 2015.

Numerous members of parliament from multiple political parties were allegedly targeted in an attempt to steal information through an exercise called spear-phishing, a cyberattack that targets a person typically through malicious emails.

The Foreign Office has since summoned the Russian ambassador and two members of the Star Blizzard, named by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) as Andrey Stanislavovich Korinets, AKA Alexey Doguzhiev, and FSB intelligence officer Ruslan Aleksandrovich Peretyatko.

When asked if he was hacked by the FSB, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he is “pretty confident in the protections” he has.

“There are a range of protections that both parliamentarians and ministers have. They get support from the National Cyber Security Centre,” Sunak said.

When detailing the cyberattack, Docherty told the Commons that impersonation attempts and “false accounts” had been used to compromise email accounts in the public sector and wider civil society to create a “believable approach seeking to build a rapport before delivering a malicious link.”

“I can confirm today that the Russian Federal Security Services, the FSB, is behind a sustained effort to interfere in our democratic processes. They have been targeting high-profile individuals and entities with clear intent – using information they obtain to meddle in British politics,” the minister said.

Following Docherty’s statement, Foreign Secretary David Cameron said: “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.”