The Prime Minister has warned the UK must be braced to face repercussions for standing up to Russia including in the form of cyber attacks (PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)The UK and its allies have said Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) is carrying out “calculated and dangerous” targeting of critical IT systems and infrastructure around the world.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said the UK energy sector and US aviation had been targeted by “sophisticated” hacking.
The group were also linked to compromising software used by European manufacturers and wind turbine developers, gaining access through hacking to European and North American energy sectors, and stealing user information and getting into US energy and nuclear facilities as well as the water, aviation and critical manufacturing sectors.
It also said the FSB - the successor agency to the KGB - had tried to hack the press secretary of Mikhail Khodorkovskiy, a UK-based critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, and had gained access to the email address of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, posing as the Russian Federal Tax Service
It said the FSB’s Centre 16, which is also known by its hacker group pseudonyms of Energetic Bear, Berserk Bear and Crouching Yeti, was behind the schemes.
🚨 Exposed: Russian spy agency behind cyber incidents
— Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) March 24, 2022
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: “Russia’s targeting of critical national infrastructure is calculated and dangerous. It shows Putin is prepared to risk lives to sow division and confusion among allies.
“We are sending a clear message to the Kremlin by sanctioning those who target people, businesses and infrastructure. We will not tolerate it.
“We will continue to work together with our allies to turn the ratchet and starve Putin’s war machine of its funding and resources.”
The Foreign Office added that a Russian defence ministry subsidiary, the Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics, had been sanctioned for an incident where malware was used to target safety override controls in a Saudi petro-chemicals plant in 2017.
