CYBER TERRORISM

A cyber security expert has warned that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is funding Islamic State hacking groups which pose a serious threat to some of the UK’s largest organisations.

Richard Turner, President of EMEA, has claimed his firm has proof that a crack team of highly skilled hackers with links to the Kremlin are targeting UK energy suppliers, defence networks, financial and telecommunication companies.

Mr Turner also claims they are responsible for bringing down a major television broadcaster in France.

Islamic State (IS) cyber terrorists were cited as the source as TV5 Monde was taken off air and the websites of smaller companies were hit by pro-IS propaganda in April. Mr Turner says, however, that the attacks were not carried out by IS but by a troupe of cyber terrorists, known as the APT28 group, which he believes are being sponsored by the Russian government and are masquerading as IS.

The security chief warns that hackers could easily bring down a media organisation in the UK or US. Mr Turner said his company has been tracking the work of APT28 since 2007.

An analysis of the information and data within the cyber caliphate website during the French attacks has been identified as being the same online data used by ATP28 in the past.

Their motives, according to Mr Turner, could be to push the news agenda away from Russia or by spreading fear and disinformation. He said: ‘If you can disrupt broadcast media through a cyber-attack you get the upper hand in spreading fear and propaganda.’

Mr Turner says that such attacks have been present for a number of years now and that many firms and individuals are only starting to realise the extent of it.

Such reports come amid increasing tensions between the west and Russia. RAF aircraft have been deployed numerous times over the past few months to fend off Russian bomber jets that have made frequent incursions into UK airspace. Russia has also beefed up its nuclear weaponry in response to US government plans to base military hardware in Eastern Europe.