Russian hackers sell passwords of British MPs and staff for £2

HACKERS could have accessed Government secrets for less than the price of a cup of coffee, after Russian criminals traded passwords belonging to British ministers and diplomats.

Education Secretary Justine Greening and Business Secretary Greg Clark are among some 9,000 government employees whose details have been sold online.

The two giant databases of stolen details are being traded freely for around £2 a time, posing a huge security risk.

They include emails and passwords of around 1,000 MPs and parliamentary staff, 1,000 Foreign Office officials and 7,000 police officers, a Times investigation found. Somewhat embarrassingly, Peter Jones, the Foreign Office’s chief operating officer – who is in charge of its IT – was also caught out in the breach, it was reported.

The information appears to have been stolen in a series of major hacks dating back at least five years, including an attack on business networking site LinkedIn in 2012.

A number of government officials confirmed to the paper that the details were accurate. Former minister Brooks Newmark said the password listed for him was one he had used ‘two or three years ago’.