Russia cyberattacks - as it happened: GRU accused of targeting Dutch chemical weapons body and Porton Down
GRU also blamed for attacks targeting Foreign Office, MH17 investigation and anti-doping conference
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The Dutch government has said it disrupted an attempt by Russian intelligence agents to hack the international chemical weapons watchdog as it investigated the Salisbury nerve agent attack.
Four Russians were expelled from the Netherlands after the plan was uncovered in April.
At the time, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was working to verify the identity of the substance used in the attack against the former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia.
It was also seeking to verify the identity of a substance used in a chemical attack in Douma, Syria.
Dutch security services expel Russian spies over cyber plot
Show all 23Britain’s defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, branded a series of global cyberattacks blamed on Russia as the reckless actions of a “pariah state,” saying the UK and its Nato allies would uncover such activities in the future.
“Where Russia acts in an indiscriminate and reckless way, where they have done in terms of these cyberattacks, we will be exposing them,” Mr Williamson said at talks in Brussels with the US defence secretary, James Mattis, and their Nato counterparts.
Additional reporting by agencies
"The catalogue of evidence shows why the Dutch are excellent partners and that the decades of theft have stripped Russia's intelligence of the skills they once had," Tom Tugendhat, a Conservative MP, tweeted.
"Putin's corrupt greed has turned the GRU into an amateurish bunch of jokers."
Russia's attempts to hack into the OPCW chemicals weapons watchdog as it investigated the Salisbury nerve agent attack showed without doubt who was behind the poisoning, the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has said.
Dutch authorities said they disrupted an attempt in April by Russian intelligence agents to hack the Netherlands-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Sergei Skripal, a former colonel in the Russian military intelligence, and his daughter Yulia, were found unconscious on a public bench in Salisburyin March.
"If anyone had questions in their mind about Russian military involvement in the Salisbury attacks this will put to rest those doubts," Mr Hunt told the BBC.
"Russian government needs to know that if they flout international law in this way there will be consequences, they will be exposed and people will see the Russian government for what they are - which is an organisation that is trying to foster instability throughout the world."
The US Justice Department has charged seven Russian military intelligence officials with hacking anti-doping agencies and other organisations.
The indictment said the GRU targeted the hacking victims because they had publicly supported a ban on Russian athletes in international sports competitions and because they had condemned Russia's state-sponsored athlete doping program.
Prosecutors said the Russians also targeted a Pennsylvania-based nuclear energy company and an international organisation that was investigating chemical weapons in Syria and the poisoning of a former GRU officer.
The indictment said the hacking was often conducted remotely. If that was not successful, the hackers would conduct "on-site" or "close access" hacking operations with trained GRU members travelling with sophisticated equipment to target their victims through wifi networks.
Speaking during a visit to Leeds, Jeremy Corbyn denied he was slow to accept Russian responsibility for Salisbury or its alleged malign influence on international relations.
The Labour leader said: "What I said was there was evidence, but the evidence had to be clear, had to be accurate and had to be effective.
"The police have done a very thorough investigation.
"Clearly the evidence now is very, very strong on Russia, I said so in fact in my speech to the Labour Party conference.
"All the evidence points again to Russia on the cyber attacks and the Dutch are clearly involved in this investigation as well, but I think we have to make clear that we have to make everything protective against cyber attacks from any state or from any organisation because clearly cyber security is going to become more and more important as the years go on."
Mr Corbyn was asked what the UK response should be to Russia.
He replied: "First of all confront Russia with the evidence, remove any diplomats that clearly are not diplomats and are masquerading as something else and confront Russia with it, but also strengthen international organisations and their protections such as the UN and the Organisation for Prevention of Chemical Warfare.
"The evidence is clearly against Russia on both the Salisbury attack and of course on the latest cyber attacks so there has to be a confrontation, a diplomatic confrontation, with Russia on this.
"Being critical of Nato and critical of Russia are perfectly sustainable positions.
"What I want is positive relations with Russia but that does mean diplomatically confronting them with the evidence both of what happened in Salisbury and of course the more recent cyber issues that come up.
"Listen, any country or any organisation that undertakes cyber attacks against any of us needs to be confronted with that."
↵Two of the passports - for the two "cyber operators" involved in the attempted hack on the OPCW - were issued on the same day in April 2017 and have numbers just one digit apart, Lizzie Dearden writes.
The two GRU assassins who poisoned Mr Skripal in Salisbury were found to be travelling on fake passports that were three digits apart.
James Mattis, the US defence secretary, said the United States stands ready to help its Nato allies amid allegations Russia's intelligence services launched a series of cyberattacks.
After talks with Nato defense ministers in Brussels, Mr Mattis said: "We are ready today to provide cyber-support to our allies. That is now."
He did not say if the offered capabilities would be used in response to British and Dutch claims that Russia's GRU attempted cyberattacks on the international chemical weapons watchdog and other targets.
But Mr Mattis backed their allegations, saying: "I've seen enough of the evidence to say the Dutch and the British are 100 per cent accurate in who they've attributed this to."
Sir Alan Duncan, the minister of state at the Foreign Office who was meant to be in the Hague for the joint UK-Netherlands press conference, said on Twitter: "Massive congratulations to Dutch intelligence for so brilliantly uncovering cyber attacks by Russian #GRU Intelligence agents.
"So sorry airport fog stopped me from getting to our planned UK-Dutch Press Conference."
The global chemical weapons watchdog that was targeted by Russian hackers has said it "takes very seriously the security of its information systems and networks."
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said in a statement that its director general was briefed by Dutch authorities about the Russian hackers who were foiled in April and expelled from the Netherlands.
The OPCW said since early this year it "has observed increased cyber-related activities" and "undertaken measures to mitigate them."
A spokesman for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said its director-general was briefed on Wednesday by Dutch officials about a cyber attack which was disrupted by the country's security services.
He said: "The Netherlands is the OPCW's host country and, as such, is in charge of ensuring and exercising due diligence in protecting the OPCW headquarters. The OPCW thanks the Netherlands for its actions and will remain in contact in regards to any further developments.
"The OPCW takes very seriously the security of its information systems and networks. Since early 2018, the organisation has observed increased cyber-related activities.
"The director-general has informed OPCW Member States about these activities and the OPCW Technical Secretariat has undertaken measures to mitigate them."
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