The UK Foreign Office was targeted by a group of determined and well-funded hackers over several months last year.
Research published by cybersecurity firm F-Secure suggested the attack was a “spear-phishing” campaign in which people are sent targeted emails with a link to a false login page to trick users into giving up their username and password.
The hackers created websites that looked like legitimate Foreign Office websites, including those for accessing an internal email account online.
The scam is believed to have been perpetrated by hackers who call themselves the Callisto Group.
F-Secure said it did not know whether the attack was successful and the National Cyber Security Centre did not say whether data had been stolen.
A spokesman told The Independent: “The first duty of Government is to safeguard the nation and as the technical authority on cyber security, the NCSC is delivering ground breaking innovations to make the UK the toughest online target in the world”.
He said it was trialling a new government-wide, Active Cyber Defence (ACD) programme to block phishing emails like this before they reach civil service inboxes.
F-Secure told the BBC the attack was part of a wider attempt by the Callisto Group to attack several targets, primarily in Eastern Europe, including “military personnel, government officials, think tanks and journalists”.
It added that there was some evidence the hackers were linked to a nation state but did not specify which one.
UK news in pictures
-
1/20
10 April 2017A girls looks at floral tributes for PC Keith Palmer during the funeral parade outside Parliament in London
EPA
-
2/20
10 April 2017Police officers line the route in Southwark as the funeral procession of PC Keith Palmer makes its way to Southwark Cathedral
Getty Images
-
3/20
10 April 2017Pall bearers carry the coffin of PC Keith Palmer, in to Southwark Cathedral
Getty Images
-
4/20
9 April 2017John Boyega attends The Olivier Awards 2017 at Royal Albert Hall in London
Getty Images
-
5/20
9 April 2017Amanda Holden attends The Olivier Awards 2017 at Royal Albert Hall in London
Getty Images
-
6/20
9 April 2017Kenneth Branagh and Lindsay Brunnock attend The Olivier Awards 2017 at the Royal Albert Hall
Getty Images
-
7/20
6 April 2017London black cab drivers hold a demonstration in Whitehall during a protest over the regulation private hire cars using the Uber app
PA wire
-
8/20
6 April 2017London black cab drivers hold a demonstration in Whitehall during a protest over the regulation private hire cars using the Uber app.
PA wire
-
9/20
6 April 2017The cocaine haul in the fishing boat The Bianca, as her skipper Michael McDermott will be sentenced after he tried to smuggle more than £80 million of cocaine into the UK
PA wire
-
10/20
6 April 2017Jon Platt arrives at the Supreme Court in central London with his wife Sally where the Court will rule on the much-anticipated legal case on an unauthorised holiday during school term time
PA wire
-
11/20
6 April 2017Bunny Penny, the Playboy Club Bunny of the Year wears an edible chocolate corset and bunny ears at Marble Arch in London
PA wire
-
12/20
6 April 2017105-year-old Jack Reynolds receives his Guinness World Record certificate after riding the Twistersaurus rollercoaster to raise money for the Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance fund at Flamingo Land in Malton, North Yorkshire. Reynolds, who broke a Guinness World Record by becoming the oldest person in the world to get a tattoo at the age of 104, said he was not nervous, particularly after flying in a Tiger Moth plane last year
PA wire
-
13/20
6 April 2017Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, leaves after meeting Britain’s Prime Minister, Theresa May inside 10 Downing Street
Reuters
-
14/20
5 April 2017Member of the European Parliament and former leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage wears socks with Union Jack flag at the European Parliament in Strasbourg
Getty Images
-
15/20
5 April 2017
Getty Images
-
16/20
2 April 2017Lydia Wilkinson, the daughter of stabbing victims Peter and Tracey Wilkinson, arrives to lay flowers and view floral tributes at her family home in Stourbridge, West Midlands
Rui Vieira/PA Wire
-
17/20
2 April 2017Lydia Wilkinson, the daughter of stabbing victims Peter and Tracey Wilkinson, views floral tributes at her family home in Stourbridge, West Midlands
Rui Vieira/PA Wire
-
18/20
2 April 2017Britain’s Prince Charles stands next to Italy’s Civil Protection agency members during his visit to the town of Amatrice, which was levelled after an earthquake last year, in central Italy
Reuters
-
19/20
2 April 2017Britain’s Prince Charles walks along with Italy’s Civil Protection agency members during his visit to the town of Amatrice, which was levelled after an earthquake last year, in central Italy
Reuters
-
20/20
1 April 2017Britain First and EDL (English Defence League) protesters walk along Northumberland Avenue during a demonstration in London
Ben Stevens/PA Wire
The company observed that some of the Callisto Group’s infrastructure had links to “entities” in China, Russia and Ukraine.
It follows the revelation that there was an attempt to disrupt the UK general election by Russian-backed hackers posing as Isis militants.
GCHQ uncovered a plot to target every Whitehall server and force every major TV broadcaster, including the BBC, Sky News and Channel 4, off the air on the day of the election.
It was discovered after the spy agency analysed a successful attack on the French broadcaster TV5Monde in 2015.
The group forced the channel’s scheduled programming off air for 18 hours and replaced them with a screen showing the terror group’s flag.
The inference with the UK’s government follows on from an ongoing probe into the Kremlin’s influence on the US elections last year.
Hacking groups such as DC Leaks, Fancy Bears and Guccifer 2.0 who were responsible for the leaking of damaging information about the Democrat party.
The most significant attack, the leaking of thousands of private emails between senior members of the DNC to Wikileaks by Fancy Bears, lead to the resignation of DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
- More about:
- Cybersecurity
- Foreign Office
- Russian hackers
- data theft
- phishing scam