Moscow has rejected media reports that a group of Russian hackers hacked into an Iranian cyber espionage operation and used it to attack government and industrial organizations in many countries around the world.
According to British security officials, the Russian group, known as Turla, accused by authorities in Estonia and the Czech Republic of working for the Russian Security Service (FSB), has used Iranian electronic tools and infrastructure and has succeeded in infiltrating organizations in at least 20 countries in the last 18 months.
Referring to media reports, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Britain explained on the embassy's website: "These leaflets are an abhorrent interpretation of a brief report by the British National Cyber Security Center and the U.S. National Security Agency."
"The security services themselves do not make any accusations against Russia or Russian citizens," he said, calling the reports an attempt to "knock a wedge" between Russia and Iran.
Moscow and Tehran have repeatedly denied Western allegations of cyber intrusions.
Earlier, British officials said the operations focused on the Middle East, but also targeted organizations in Britain.
Paul Chichester, a senior official at the British intelligence agency GCHQ, said the operation proves that state-backed hackers are operating in a "very busy space" and are developing new attacks and methods to improve coverage of their tracks.
In a statement accompanying a joint report with the U.S. National Security Agency, the agency's National CyberSecurity Center said it wants to raise awareness of this activity and is working to block attacks by adversaries.
"We want to send a clear message that even when cyberhackers seek to hide their identities, our capabilities will eventually be able to detect them," said Chichester, who serves as operations director for the National CyberSecurity Center.
By David Clayton October 26, 2019
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