UK and US expose malign activity by Russian intelligence

The UK and US are calling out Russia for carrying out the SolarWinds compromise, part of a wider pattern of activities by the Russian Intelligence Services against the UK and its allies.

The UK government has for the first time exposed details of the SVR’s cyber programme. The SVR is Russia’s civilian foreign intelligence service and is the successor organization to the KGB’s First Chief Directorate. It predominantly targets overseas governmental, diplomatic, think-tank, healthcare and energy targets for intelligence purposes.

A compromise of SolarWinds IT services firm was discovered in December 2020. SolarWinds confirmed 18,000 organisations across the world including US Government departments were affected.

The NCSC has assessed that it is highly likely Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Services are responsible for the compromise of SolarWinds software, Orion, and subsequent targeting.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says that Russia’s pattern of malign behaviour around the world demonstrates that Russia remains the most acute threat to the UK’s national and collective security. He stressed that the UK, alongside its international partners, will continue to defend against Russia’s attempts to destabilise our societies.

Raab said: “We see what Russia is doing to undermine our democracies. The UK and US are calling out Russia’s malicious behaviour, to enable our international partners and businesses at home to better defend and prepare themselves against this kind of action. The UK will continue to work with allies to call out Russia’s malign behaviour where we see it.”