RUSSIA IS PLANNING A MAJOR CYBER ATTACK, SAY UK AND US

▶ Intelligence agencies reveal Moscow is preparing for offensives against critical infrastructure

The United States and Britain have accused Russia of laying the groundwork for major cyber attacks on their energy, health and telecoms systems after this weekend’s air strikes on Syria.

Experts from the two countries accused Moscow of being involved in “malicious cyber activity” by using malware to try to steal intellectual property, carry out espionage and prepare for future offensives.

British and US intelligence services released a statement saying the main targets included “government and private-sector organisations”, as well as providers of critical infrastructure and internet service providers.

“The US and UK governments have high confidence that Russian state-sponsored cyber actors were behind this malicious cyber activity that aimed to exploit network infrastructure devices,” the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre said.

“This threatens the safety, security and economic well-being of the US, UK and international allies.”

Russia dismissed the warnings as groundless.

“We don’t know what these new accusations are based on,” said President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

The timing of the threat suggested political motives rather than a rise in cyber activity against the two countries, a cyber-security expert said.

“It’s a change in position, rather than a rise in threat,” said the expert who declined to be named because of the nature of his work. “This sort of thing has been happening for quite a long time. It’s something the Russians have been consistently doing to gain access to infrastructure.”

The statement released late on Monday is just the latest warning by the US and the UK about Russian cyber activity and the threat to the country’s energy, health and telecoms networks.

Britain’s Secretary of Defence, Gavin Williamson, warned in January that Russia had been researching the UK’s critical infrastructure to learn how it could spark panic, chaos and cause “thousands and thousands” of deaths.

“What they are looking at doing is trying to spot vulnerabilities,” Mr Williamson said. “They want to know how they can kill infrastructure.”

Russia responded by claiming he had “lost his grasp on reason”.

The malicious cyber activity identified in the latest warning reportedly began in 2015 and has been given the name Grizzly Step by US authorities.

It involves aiming at devices such as routers, switches and firewalls that control access to computer networks.

“If you have control of a network at choke points it just opens up a world of possibilities to you,” the expert said.

Rob Joyce, the White House cyber security co-ordinator, said the US had a range of options with which to retaliate, including new sanctions and its own cyber-offensive techniques.

“When we see malicious cyber activity, whether it be from the Kremlin or other malicious nation-state actors, we are going to push back,” Mr Joyce said.

He said that the Russian activity was not related to the US, UK and French strikes in Syria on Saturday and that the release of the document had not been timed because of the increased tension between the countries.

Britain has blamed Moscow for the attack on a former spy in southern England, prompting the expulsion of more than 150 Russian diplomats from two dozen countries. Moscow has denied involvement.

“Calling the Russians out on this hardly makes much sense unless there’s some other agenda,” said Jake Williams, a US cyber-security researcher

The US and the UK have blamed Russia for launching cyber attacks, including election meddling and the NotPetya offensive in Ukraine, which left 200,000 people without power.

The UK claimed last week that the cyber-security centre responded to 49 incidents linked to Russian groups in the past six months.

Australia yesterday blamed Moscow-sponsored hackers for up to 400 attacks on businesses last year.

What they are looking at doing is trying to spot vulnerabilities. They want to know how they can kill infrastructure GAVIN WILLIAMSON UK Secretary of Defence