Russia dismisses hacking reports as 'unsavoury'

Moscow on Thursday dismissed media reports that Russian hackers piggybacked on an Iranian cyber-espionage operation to attack government and industry organisations in dozens of countries as an “unsavoury” interpretation of a security report.

British security officials have said the Russian group, known as “Turla” and accused by Estonian and Czech authorities of operating on behalf of Russia’s FSB security service, has used Iranian tools and computer infrastructure to successfully hack in to organisations in at least 20 different countries over the last 18 months.

“These publications are an unsavoury interpretation of a concise report of the British National Cyber Security Centre and the American National Security Agency,” a spokesman for the Russian embassy in the UK said on the mission’s website, referring to the media reports.

“The security services themselves are not putting forward any accusations against Russia and Russian citizens.”

The spokesman also said that the reports that the hacker used Iranian infrastructure was an attempt to “drive a wedge” between Russia and Iran.

Moscow and Tehran have both repeatedly denied Western allegations over hacking.