Russia says it’s playing by rules but goes behind our backs, says security minister
BRITAIN today directly blamed Russian intelligence agencies for targeting Western centres developing a vaccine against Covid-19.
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre yesterday said a group called APT29 was carrying out the attacks and that it “almost certainly operates as part of Russian Intelligence Services”.
Security minister James Brokenshire this morning was even more categoric in laying the blame on the Russian state.
“It’s completely unacceptable for the Russian intelligence agencies to seek to get into the systems of those who are seeking to respond to this crisis, to develop pharmaceuticals, to develop a vaccine,” he told Sky News.
“It just underlines that where Russia claims to be playing by the rules, to be doing things in accordance with the international order, the reality is that they are seeking to exploit networks and to take action in a completely unacceptable and inappropriate way.”
The NCSC assessed that APT29, which also uses the names the Dukes or Cozy Bear, infiltrated IT networks and scanned them for vulnerabilities and information in an attempt to find and take intellectual property. However, there was no evidence that anything had been stolen or any damage done, Mr Brokenshire added. Russia has denied responsibility.
The targeted centres, which reportedly include Oxford’s vaccine programme and others including in the US and Canada, have been advised to step up cyber-protection as the attacks are
It underlines that where Russia claims to be playing by the rules, the reality is they are seeking to exploit
believed to be an “ongoing situation”.
According to the Russian Tass news agency, President Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We do not have information about who may have hacked into pharmaceutical companies and research centres in Great Britain. We can say one thing: Russia has nothing at all to do with these attempts.” Baroness Neville-Jones, a former head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, believes Mr Putin would have known about the alleged Covid
James Brokenshire
cyber-operation. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab yesterday accused Russian “actors” of seeking to interfere in last December’s election by “amplifying” on the internet a leaked report about UK-US trade talks, though he did not blame the Russian state.
The document, which was seized on by the Labour leader at the time Jeremy Corbyn to claim the Government was ready to sell the NHS in post-Brexit trade talks, is said to have been obtained illicitly and there is an ongoing criminal investigation.
Watch the video: standard.co.uk/brokenshire