UK accused Russia's FSB of attempts to interfere in political process

The British government has accused Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) of attempting to interfere in political processes through cyberattacks. Russian Ambassador Andrei Kelin has already been summoned to the British Foreign Office.

This was reported by the BBC.

Deputy Foreign Secretary Leo Docherty reportedly said that sanctions had been imposed on two people from the Star Blizzard hacker group, one of whom is a current FSB officer.

The group, which is controlled by the Center 18 unit of the Russian Federal Security Service, is accused of carrying out hundreds of targeted hacker attacks on British politicians, civil servants, think tank employees, journalists, academics, and other public figures.

The hackers attacked the private emails of individuals after conducting thorough research and creating fake accounts that impersonated their contacts.

As noted, this group focused on hacking the data, while others disseminated it through various channels.

Back in February, British MP Stuart Macdonald said that his email had been hacked, and the attacker was posing as one of his employees. He announced this publicly to prevent any emails from being leaked.

"This group has acquired a vast amount of data," Western officials said. "This information is used to undermine the West in various ways".

It should be noted that Britain has already accused Russia of interfering in the 2019 elections. This happened after documents on US-UK trade were stolen from Conservative MP Liam Fox and leaked online. But Britain has not yet named who might be behind it.

Author – Anastasiya Glotova, 07/12/2023