BREAKING— The UK has become the first major Western country to formally accuse the Russian military of orchestrating and launching the NotPetya ransomware outbreak.
"The UK Government judges that the Russian Government, specifically the Russian military, was responsible for the destructive NotPetya cyber-attack of June 2017," said Foreign Office Minister Lord Ahmad in a statement published online a few minutes ago.
"The attack showed a continued disregard for Ukrainian sovereignty. Its reckless release disrupted organisations across Europe costing hundreds of millions of pounds," Lord Ahmad added.
"The Kremlin has positioned Russia in direct opposition to the West yet it doesn’t have to be that way," Lord Ahmad also said. "We call upon Russia to be the responsible member of the international community it claims to be rather then secretly trying to undermine it."
GRU operatives most likely behind the attack
The UK Foreign Office Minister did not specifically point the finger at any specific entity of the Russian military, but a Washington Post article citing CIA sources published in mid-January pegged the Russian Military's Main Intelligence Directorate (abbreviated GRU) as the one department that created NotPetya.
A report authored by the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service claims that the GRU military spy agency is also behind APT28, a cyber-espionage unit also known as Fancy Bear, responsible for hacks all over the world, including the infamous DNC hack.
Ukraine's Secret Service (SBY) has not been shy about blaming Russia for the NotPetya ransomware incident, going public with their accusations just days after the incident.
On the other hand, US officials did not make any official comments in regards to NotPetya attribution. They did blame North Korea for the WannaCry outbreak, though, and so did the UK.
UK: Russian military was "almost certainly" behind NotPetya
Lord Ahmad's statement was also accompanied by a note from the UK's National Cyber Security Centre which said it "assesses that the Russian military was almost certainly responsible for the destructive NotPetya cyber-attack."
The NotPetya ransomware outbreak took place on June 27, 2017, and targeted mainly Ukrainian companies through a tainted update of a local accounting software. Unfortunately, NotPetya infections spread to other businesses across the world due to shared and interconnected networks.
NotPetya was followed by the Bad Rabbit ransomware outbreak on October 24, though less damaging, believed to be a modified version of NotPetya, and which many also suspect Russia may have had a hand in.
Comments
Warthog-Fan - 6 years ago
There is no proof that Russia was behind the DNC hacks, since the DNC refused to allow the FBI to access their servers to try to identify the organization responsible for the hacks.
Occasional - 6 years ago
The UK statement is significant; but without more knowledge of the wording used in the UK's official doctrines and protocols, we can't say if consequences would automatically follow such a determination. Had Ukraine been a member of NATO, "judging" Russia to have deliberately attacked a member nation, would have required a military (cyber or material), response by all NATO members. As it is, the statement only judges the damage done beyond the Ukraine, as a consequence of the Russian military's "...reckless release...". The "We call upon Russia to be..." statement seems to remove any implication that there will be any consequences imposed.
_LC_ - 6 years ago
Yes - and the UK keeps accusing Assange, holding him captive in effect. They even know better than the Swedish prosecutors who would have liked to drop the charges, but were told to do otherwise by the Brits... The Guardian: "Sweden tried to drop Assange extradition in 2013, CPS emails show"
In a related matter, Germany accused Poland of starting the war! :-P
Amigo-A - 6 years ago
'Lord Ahmad' - a strange name, it seems like bought.
Here are such fighters-in-bureau, fighters-in-sofa always belch a lie contrary anyone. They do not really care about the truth, it's important for them to shout and do himself a name on lies.
JohnnyJammer - 6 years ago
What a load of crap, USA/UK/AUS/NZ has admitted hacking every country in the world from bases around the globe using NSA, 5 Eyes as a cover but yet when someone else does it they are no good terrorists.
This is why a lot of the world hate american politics.
Warthog-Fan - 6 years ago
IMHO, there is a big difference between hacking a nation's computer network in order to get information, and deliberately destroying the networks of institutions for no other reason than to be destructive.
JohnnyJammer - 6 years ago
"IMHO, there is a big difference between hacking a nation's computer network in order to get information, and deliberately destroying the networks of institutions for no other reason than to be destructive. "
Just like the yank and jews did with Stuxnet hey? They deliberately destroyed irans nuclear program not for information but to destroy it.
So refer to my original response mate, yanks and the jews have been doign this for a lot longer than anyone else LOL.
Warthog-Fan - 6 years ago
Stuxnet was designed to cripple a nation state's attempts to develop a nuclear weapons program that had the goal of attacking and destroying a Mideastern neighbor. NotPetya and Bad Rabbit had no such strategic goal in mind but were just "vandalism" malware. The two were not the same.