Russia’s curious reaction to Britain’s hacking allegations

That Russia’s security services have been targeting British politicians and other high-profile figures won’t come as a surprise. But the scale of the accusations levelled today at the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) by the British government is still shocking. GCHQ has said that, since 2015, Russia has carried out hundreds of hacks against MPs, journalists and civil servants. Former trade secretary Liam Fox and the ex head of MI6 Richard Dearlove are among the victims.

British intelligence revealed a surprising amount of detail about the FSB unit responsible for this hacking activity. The group allegedly goes by the name ‘Star Blizzard’ and belongs to the FSB’s Centre 18. This unit, based in the FSB’s notorious headquarters at the Lubyanka in Moscow, is responsible for the FSB’s counterintelligence and supposedly investigates cyber crime – although as today’s news suggests, this is likely a smokescreen for more nefarious activity. Two Russian citizens, Ruslan Aleksandrovich Peretyatko and Andrey Stanislavovich Korinets, who are thought to be part of Centre 18, will be sanctioned, the Foreign Office has said.

The hackers have been using a tactic known as ‘spear-phishing’: deploying fake identities to target individuals through their personal email addresses to build up rapport before tricking them into allowing malware (usually disguised as innocent website links) to invade their computers and steal information.