On Thursday, Dutch authorities said it disrupted a cyber operation conducted by Russia’s GRU, targeting the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).<\/p>\n
The British ambassador to the Netherlands, Peter Wilson, also revealed how one of the agents allegedly attempted to disrupt the investigation into Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17), which was shot down in 2014.<\/p>\n
He said the\u00a0Russian agents were being sent around the world<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to “conduct brazen close-access cyber operations”.<\/p>\n Hours after the Dutch and British allegations, the US indicted seven Russian intelligence officers for conspiring to hack computers and steal data in a bid to delegitimise international anti-doping organisations.<\/p>\n Justice Department officials say three of the seven Russian military intelligence officials were previously charged by special counsel Robert Mueller.<\/p>\n US defence secretary James Mattis has called for Moscow to be held accountable for allegedly targeting the OPCW.<\/p>\n Responding to the claims made on Thursday, the Russian embassy in London said the allegations were “irresponsible” and that the UK was imparting “crude disinformation”.<\/p>\n In a statement, it said: “As is traditional, it is not backed by any proof and is another element in an anti-Russian campaign being conducted by the British government.”<\/p>\n The Russian foreign ministry accused the West of “spy mania” over the latest allegations.<\/p>\n At a news conference at the Hague, Dutch authorities showed passport pictures of four people – three cyber officers and a case officer – who arrived at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam from Moscow on 10 April.<\/p>\n The four men are said to have gone to the OPCW’s headquarters on a reconnaissance mission.<\/p>\n Pictures revealed at the news conference showed the car they used with a WiFi antenna and technical equipment in its boot, thought to be used to hack the network.<\/p>\n It was around this time that investigations into the Skripals’ novichok poisoning were taking place.<\/p>\n They decided to try and destroy smartphones following their mission and also took their rubbish out of their own hotel rooms they stayed in, in an attempt not to leave any DNA traces, according to Dutch officials.<\/p>\n They are said to have had \u20ac20,000 (\u00a317,700) and $20,000 (\u00a315,400) in cash with them. Officials said the men were expelled from the country following the alleged cyber attack.<\/p>\n Speaking about the Russian intelligence service GRU, Mr Wilson said it was a “well-funded” unit of the Russian state and that it was behaving “aggressively across the world” and “with apparent impunity”.<\/p>\n He said the agents had planned to target an OPCW in laboratory in Switzerland too. Canada has also said it was targeted by Russian cyber attacks.<\/p>\n Dutch defence minister Ank Bijleveld said the Russian ambassador to the Netherlands had been summoned to explain the cyber operation.<\/p>\n Russian spies targeted the UK’s Foreign Office, computers at Porton Down and the chemical weapons watchdog, officials have said. On Thursday, Dutch authorities said it disrupted a cyber operation conducted by Russia’s GRU, targeting the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The British ambassador to the Netherlands, Peter Wilson, also revealed how one of the agents allegedly attempted… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[81],"class_list":["post-2318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-sky-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2319,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318\/revisions\/2319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}