Inside Russia’s secret ‘Star Blizzard’ hacking unit
Inews.Co.UkDec 07, 2023
Russia Accused of Hacking, Interfering in UK Politics
The Facts
The UK Foreign Office has summoned the country’s Russian ambassador and has sanctioned two alleged members of the Russian Security Service’s (FSB) "Star Blizzard" group, following accusations that Moscow had hacked the private conversations of British politicians and civil servants.
Leo Docherty, a minister in the Foreign Office, has claimed that the FSB has directed cyber attacks on Members of Parliament (MPs), peers, civil servants, journalists, and others since 2015 in a "sustained effort to interfere in our democratic processes." Docherty added that Star Blizzard, under the command of the FSB, had targeted lawmakers "from multiple parties."
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
While this news shouldn't surprise anyone, the UK government did its due diligence by investigating these hacks thoroughly over 18 months before publicly accusing Moscow. After careful investigation, we know the FSB has targeted high-level personnel in the UK as well as US military personnel. Furthermore, this group of Russian attackers hacked Ukrainian infrastructure months before the annexation of Crimea.
Establishment-critical narrative
This so-called bombshell news would mean something if the US hadn't been doing the exact same thing to both private citizens and diplomats in Russia. American intelligence agencies, working in tandem with Apple, have already been using Apple-provided malware to hack iPhones via their sim cards registered with diplomatic missions. Western countries publicly decry Moscow's use of cyberwarfare, while conducting the very same malicious schemes.
Nerd narrative
There's a 5% chance that an infrastructure disaster costing >$1B in a G20 country will be widely attributed to an AI cyberattack before 2025, according to the Metaculus prediction community.