Russian hackers hacked the emails of British officials and diplomats

Russian hackers have hacked the email accounts of British officials and Foreign Office employees working abroad.

This is reported by The Telegraph.

The attack affected more than 80 000 firewalls manufactured by Fortinet. Exploiting vulnerabilities in these systems, the attackers used previously stolen data to bypass the defenses that protect some of the UKʼs most important critical infrastructure.

Email addresses and corresponding passwords were leaked, potentially allowing hackers — or anyone willing to pay — to gain access to sensitive government systems. Access to these accounts is being sold on darknet forums for up to $60 000.

Also among the hacked accounts were those of IT specialists at the British embassies in Thailand and Mauritius and employees of local authorities in Derbyshire and Waltham Forest in east London.

Among the credentials put up for sale are logins from institutions that provide critical services and national infrastructure, including the UKʼs National Health Service (NHS), energy companies and key drug suppliers.

The Telegraph’s specialists analyzed the code behind the hack and found that it was written in Russian. Access to the stolen data is being sold by a user under the pseudonym SantaAd — the journalists found his alleged Telegram channel, but the owner did not respond to their messages. At the same time, there is no direct evidence of the Kremlin’s involvement in the attack yet.

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