US and UK accuse Russia of hacking, attempted political interference

London and Washington accuse members of the FSB, the Russian intelligence services, of having carried out hacking and “repeated but ineffective attempts to interfere with political processes”.

Actions “absolutely unacceptable”. The United Kingdom and the United States accused Russia of being behind hacking attempts and political cyber interference targeting high-ranking politicians, journalists and non-governmental organizations, in a statement Thursday, December 7.

The FSB, the Russian intelligence service, “is behind repeated but ineffective attempts to interfere with British political processes”, according to the press release. The United States, for its part, denounced “a campaign to hack the computer networks of the United States, the United Kingdom, other countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Ukraine, on behalf of the Russian government”in a text published by the US Department of Justice.

The two countries specifically named two suspects, who they say belong to a group of cyberhackers associated with Center 18, a specialized unit of the FSB identified as “Star Blizzard” by London or “Callisto group” by Washington. Both were placed under British and American sanctions, and indicted by the United States justice system for computer hacking. The State Department announced a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to their location and arrest, as well as their accomplices.

Documents leaked before the elections

London also indicates that it has summoned the Russian ambassador “to express deep concern about the repeated attempts” to use the internet to “interfere in political and democratic processes in the UK and beyond”. “Russia’s attempts to interfere in British politics are absolutely unacceptable and seek to threaten our democratic processes”declared the head of British diplomacy David Cameron, quoted in the press release.

MPs from different political parties in the United Kingdom have been targeted since at least 2015 and until this year, according to British diplomacy. She cites in particular the hacking of American-British commercial documents which had leaked before the 2019 elections. A parliamentary report published in July 2020 had accused the government of having seriously underestimated the risks and had urged it to investigate possible Russian interference, notably during the Brexit referendum campaign in 2016.