Sanctions warning for Russia after probe hack

Cyber attack bid on chemical weapons watchdog

Britain has warned Russia it could face new sanctions after accusing the Kremlin of attempting to hack the international body investigating the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

Dutch authorities disclosed yesterday how, with the help of UK intelligence, they thwarted an attempted cyber attack on the HQ of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague.

The incident, just weeks after the attempted poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal, led to the expulsion from the Netherlands of a team from Russia’s GRU military intelligence service.

In a joint statement, Theresa May and Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte condemned the “unacceptable cyber activities” of the GRU and vowed to work to uphold the “rules-based international system”.

The Russian foreign ministry dismissed the allegations as “big fantasies” and part of the West’s “spy mania”.

However in Washington, the US Department of Justice said it had indicted seven suspected GRU officers for “malicious cyber activities” against the US and its allies – including some of those named in connection with the OPCW attack.

Assistant attorney general John Demers said three of those charged had already been indicted by special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Details of the attempted attack on the OPCW were revealed at an extraordinary joint news conference at the Dutch Ministry of Defence with the British ambassador Peter Wilson.

He said that following the Salisbury attack in March, a group of GRU hackers in Russia known as “Sandworm” had targeted both the Foreign Office and the Defence and Science Technology Laboratory at Porton Down which was investigating the incident.

They were also said to have sent “spear phishing” emails to the HQ of the OPCW, which was helping the UK authorities to identify the deadly nerve agent used in the attack, in an attempt to compromise its computers.

When that failed, a GRU “close access” team was sent from Russia to the Netherlands to try to penetrate their cyber defences from close quarters.

On April 13, the Dutch security service seized a car containing sophisticated hacking equipment the GRU men were using near the OPCW building.

While the Russians were escorted out of the country, investigators uncovered evidence that they had been preparing to travel on to Switzerland to target the OPCW’s laboratory in Spiez.

They also found details of other operations some of them had been involved in, including hacking the World Anti-Doping Agency in Switzerland.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “The Russian government needs to know that if they flout international law in this way, there will be consequences, they will be exposed, and people will see the Russian government for what they are.”

If they flout international law in this way, there will be consequences