UK concealed 2021 server hack over 'embarrassment'

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
12 Aug 2023 15:02

The United Kingdom reveals that it was hacked years ago but concealed the information in order to avert any sort of embarrassment and lack of trust.

A cryptic website launched by GCHQ taken in London, Friday, Dec 2, 2011 (AP)

Hackers, reportedly Russian and Chinese, managed to breach the servers of the British Foreign Office in 2021. However, London chose to conceal this breach from public knowledge in order to avert any potential embarrassment, the British newspaper iNews reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Utilizing a virus that was potentially downloaded accidentally by a civil servant, these hackers were able to sift through emails, internal documents, and other materials pertaining to the daily operations of the foreign ministry.

The information about the hack saw the light of day in a report released on Friday, where insiders suggested that the incident alarmed the government due to uncertainty about whether to acknowledge the breach or not.

While the information accessed by the hackers wasn't classified, experts, whose identities were not revealed by the newspaper, cautioned that it might have harmed relations with allied nations and even endangered certain diplomats.

Sources indicate that the UK government's motive for keeping this intrusion hidden was to avert criticism concerning the susceptibility of their communication system, thereby circumventing potential embarrassment.

In February 2022, the UK government admitted that the Foreign Office had faced a "serious cyber security incident" after accidentally publishing a sensitive tender document on its website. Later in October, the UK government acknowledged that "hostile actors" had managed to breach the personal data of tens of millions of voters.