A campaign of malicious cyber activity by Russian Intelligence Services is attempting to interfere in UK politics and democratic processes, the UK authorities have stated.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) – a part of the Government monitoring agency GCHQ – assesses that Star Blizzard, a group that has been identified using cyber operations to target high-profile individuals and entities, is almost certainly subordinate to Centre 18 of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). The malicious activity has included:
– Targeting, including spear-phishing, of UK parliamentarians from multiple political parties, from at least 2015 to this year;
– compromise of UK-US trade documents that were leaked ahead of the December 2019 general election;
– The 2018 compromise of the Institute for Statecraft, a UK think-tank whose work included initiatives to defend democracy against disinformation, and the more recent hack of its founder Christopher Donnelly, whose account was compromised from December 2021; in both instances documents were subsequently leaked.
– Targeting of universities, journalists, public sector, NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and other civil society groups.
The group has also selectively leaked information obtained through its operations and amplified the release in line with Russian confrontation goals, including to undermine trust in politics in the UK and likeminded states.
Paul Chichester, NCSC Director of Operations, said: “Defending our democratic processes is an absolute priority for the NCSC and we condemn any attempt which seeks to interfere or undermine our values. Russia’s use of cyber operations to further its attempts at political interference is wholly unacceptable and we are resolute in calling out this pattern of activity with our partners. Individuals and organisations which play an important role in our democracy must bolster their security and we urge them to follow the recommended steps in our guidance to help prevent compromises.”
More at the NCSC website. See also, the speech yesterday by Oliver Dowden, the Deputy Prime Minister.
– Checking the source – who is telling us this information?
-Cross-verifying the information with multiple trusted sources.
– Scrutinising the information and fact-checking it where we can. “
