Ex-spymaster and fellow Brexiteers' emails leaked by suspected Russian op
- Reference: 1653546425
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/05/26/brexit_emails_leaked/
- Source link:
The messages feature conversations between former spymaster Richard Dearlove, who led Britain's foreign intelligence service MI6 from 1999 to 2004; Baroness Gisela Stuart, a member of the House of Lords; and Robert Tombs, an expert of French history at the University of Cambridge, as well as other Brexit supporters. The emails were uploaded to a .co.uk website titled "Very English Coop d'Etat," Reuters [1]first reported this week.
Dearlove confirmed his ProtonMail account was compromised. "I am well aware of a Russian operation against a Proton account which contained emails to and from me," he said. The Register has asked Baroness Stuart and Tombs as well as ProtonMail for comment. Tombs declined to comment.
[2]
Judging from the "Coop" website, all of the people listed have ProtonMail accounts that have been broken into and had their contents siphoned. We understand that the messages dumped on the site for all to download mostly appear to be discussing campaigns advocating for the UK to leave Europe.
[3]
[4]
Shane Huntley, director of Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG), said the email security breach appears to be the handiwork of Cold River, a government-backed group in Russia also known as Callisto.
The team typically targets email accounts of politicians, NGOs, think tanks, and journalists, as well as members of the government and military. Cold River has sent links to phishing websites in emails as well as PDFs and documents from Google Drive or Microsoft One Drive accounts, we're told.
[5]
It's not clear how the email account, or accounts, were infiltrated. Huntley [6]said it's the first time he has seen the group leak information for what could disinformation purposes.
"Reporting on [disinformation] activity is difficult," he tweeted. "It's too easy to amplify the campaign and increase the effect. As we take a breath, we note that this is a pretty clumsy campaign, and maybe based on just one hacked ProtonMail account."
[7]Google: Russian credential thieves target NATO, Eastern European military
[8]Protonmail celebrates Swiss court victory exempting it from telco data retention laws
[9]ProtonMail deletes 'we don't log your IP' boast from website after French climate activist reportedly arrested
[10]Proton welcomes Sir Tim Berners-Lee to its advisory board – as ProtonMail suffers a privacy backlash
Google's TAG unit said it has noticed increased activity from Eastern Europe from what appear to be government-backed miscreants amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. These snoops are targeting personal accounts of leading figures in various industries, including oil and gas, manufacturing, and telecommunications groups.
"Government-backed actors from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, as well as various unattributed groups, have used various Ukraine war-related themes in an effort to get targets to open malicious emails or click malicious links. Financially motivated and criminal actors are also using current events as a means for targeting users," TAG [11]said in a blog post this month.
If the leaked emails – available all together in a 33MB Zip archive – are authentic, it's the second time Russian spies are believed to have stolen documents and leaked emails from leading British officials, according to Reuters.
[12]
The personal email account of Conservative MP Liam Fox, former trade minister and Secretary of Defense, was [13]reportedly phished by Kremlin snoops in 2019. Documents leaked from his inbox were seized by rival Labour Party members, who claimed the files showed the Tories were planning to sell out Britain's National Health Service to the Americans. ®
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[1] https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-russian-hackers-are-linked-new-brexit-leak-website-google-says-2022-05-25/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/research&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Yo9PxFbXSJ7hBF2-NxjykAAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/research&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yo9PxFbXSJ7hBF2-NxjykAAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/research&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Yo9PxFbXSJ7hBF2-NxjykAAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/research&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yo9PxFbXSJ7hBF2-NxjykAAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://twitter.com/ShaneHuntley/status/1529482187736723456?s=20&t=kignOH-oFjnGtJYJ0NEK8A
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/01/russian_credential_phishing/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/27/protonmail_data_victory/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/07/protonmail_hands_user_ip_address_police/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/08/proton_welcomes_sir_tim_bernerslee/
[11] https://blog.google/threat-analysis-group/update-on-cyber-activity-in-eastern-europe/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/research&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Yo9PxFbXSJ7hBF2-NxjykAAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/04/russians_hack_fox/
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Sowing Division
Steady on, it's only the KGB, not the SNP
[quote]
Shane Huntley, director of Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG), said ...
[/quote]
We just analyse. We don't actually do anything about it.
How else would you be getting Google emails from the United Nations and the World Bank, days after you've reported them to us?
https://www.spamhaus.org/sbl/listings/google.com
some dodgy plotting
I recall encountering these a week or two ago; can't remember where, but nice to see it confirmed here.
Some of the alleged emails were a tad dodgy on the legal front. As someone that voted to leave the EU I nonetheless fully support prosecuting any breaches of UK law by people trying to make that happen.
Of course, I would've voted to leave anyway, and I also support prosecution against the traitors that colluded with the EU to try and hand control of the UK to foreign powers against the will of the British people.
Re: some dodgy plotting
"Of course, I would've voted to leave anyway, and I also support prosecution against the traitors that colluded with the EU to try and hand control of the UK to foreign powers against the will of the British people."
Just curious. Were you born this fucking stupid, or did you get kicked in the head by horse, or something?
Re: some dodgy plotting
It's funny how the same tired and risible phrases are trotted out by the leave fanatics again and again and again, isn't it? Yet ask them for a shred of either proof of any of their hysterical claims, or better yet, an example of how much better off we are, it all goes quiet. A bit like American 2nd amendment supporters.
Re: some dodgy plotting
@Mooseman
"Yet ask them for a shred of either proof of any of their hysterical claims, or better yet, an example of how much better off we are, it all goes quiet"
Really? Last time we seemed to discuss this you went quiet after agreeing a serious benefit which you called the 'get out of jail free card'-
https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2021/10/07/intels_80bn_european_chip_plant/#c_4345718
Re: some dodgy plotting
These accusations were being discussed prior to the Brexit vote and were dismissed as trash by the Tory government. Given what we're seeing these days, this report is not surprising but now that we've jailed Julian Assange, there's very little discussion about all the world-wide government stupidities. Brexit was a mess but not as bad a disaster as the Ukraine war, I wonder if WikiLeaks was still running we'd have just seen a political collapse in the Ukraine instead of a war? I think that WikiLeaks was trying to do a good job but was manipulated by Russia to fight on the Internet without killing people (just jailing a few).
Re: some dodgy plotting
Ah, so you supported the liars and traitors who stripped the rights of the British people, using a rigged and corrupt electoral system to put a liar in as PM with a massive majority whilst getting a minority of the vote.
Fact: at the last general election, more than 50% of votes went to parties advocating a second referendum or simply stopping brexit.
I.e, the brexiters' lies had unravelled, the will of the British people was to remain.
A beastly feast for those famished of ravishing information?
For those who want to see more meat on the bones of Katyanna’s report, knock yourselves out with a read of the info and intel .... or disinformation and fake news if that is your preference for conclusion ...... available from the Grayzone ..... [1]https://thegrayzone.com/2022/05/15/operation-leaked-emails-intelligence-coup-boris-johnson/
[1] https://thegrayzone.com/2022/05/15/operation-leaked-emails-intelligence-coup-boris-johnson/
The commies should just lay off...
They should lay off the puns. I mean fair enough try a catchy by line but please leave the sarcasm to the more subtle Brits.
Is there a reason not to publish…
…the actual link?
It's this site that's being talked about:
https://sneakystrawhead.co.uk/
Given the subject matter, the people concerned, and their own statements that there was nothing improper about it, it's rather clearly in the public interest not to self censor or allow oneself to be censored.
The public are not that stupid: you publish the info, you inform them of the likely source and the need not to take things at face value, and those interested can do their own verifications.
Re: Is there a reason not to publish…
The alternative is for people to have to read about it through someone else's lens, such as the site mentioned by the Martian above.
I don't understand the reasoning behind not publishing the link. The victims of the breach have confirmed it and there is also some independent verification from Reuters.
It is true that there is very clearly a political motive behind the leak (as is usually the case) and that the possibility exists that false documents might have been injected along with the real stuff. That calls for a caveat emptor, but on the balance of things and in the interest of freedom of speech, I think the decision should be on the side of publication.
"what could disinformation purposes."
Is there any reason to believe it is disinformation? It looks like the interviewee is trying to imply this without giving anything to back it up
(I'm not says the leak definitely isn't disinformation, I have no idea. Spreading information to wind people up seems very likely, but I don't see where the idea that the info is false came from)
Sowing Division
Trying to sow division in our United Kingdom? They will not easily drive a wedge between us!
Ah. Err.