Spy chief denies Russia was behind hack of US firm SolarWinds

Sergei Naryshkin said he was ‘flattered’ by the accusations from the US and Britain that Russia’s foreign intelligence was behind the cyberattack
The hack of SolarWinds in December gave access to thousands of companies and government offices that used its products

Russia

Reuters

Published: 5:39pm, 18 May, 2021

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Russia’s spy chief on Tuesday denied responsibility for the SolarWinds cyberattack but said he was “flattered” by the accusations from the United States and Britain that Moscow’s foreign intelligence was behind such a sophisticated hack.

Washington and London have blamed Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), successor to the foreign spying operations of the KGB, for the hack which compromised nine US federal agencies and hundreds of private sector companies.

“These claims are like a bad detective novel,” SVR Director Sergei Naryshkin, a close ally of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, told the BBC in Russian.

Asked directly if the SVR was responsible for the SolarWinds attack, Naryshkin quipped with a smile that he would be “flattered” if the SVR had been responsible for such a sophisticated attack but that he could not “claim the creative achievements of others as his own”.

Suspected Russian hackers used Microsoft vendors to breach customers without SolarWinds software

Naryshkin said he did not want to accuse the US of being behind the attack but quoted from documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden to suggest that the tactics of the attack were similar to those used by American and British intelligence agencies.

The US and Britain cast Russia as a dangerous former superpower which they say has poisoned enemies with nerve agents and radioactive isotopes, meddled in Western elections and carried out hacking operations across the world.

Naryshkin said such accusations were absurd and that Russia was not responsible for the cyberattacks, poisonings, hacks, or meddling in elections that it was blamed for.

The hack of SolarWinds compromised nine US federal agencies and hundreds of private sector companies. File photo: TNS

The hack of SolarWinds, which was identified in December, gave access to thousands of companies and government offices that used its products. Microsoft president Brad Smith described the attack as “the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen”.

Britain’s GCHQ cyber spying agency said that it was highly likely that SVR was responsible for the SolarWinds attack.

Asked about a view that only 10 per cent of Russian intelligence operations in Europe were uncovered, Naryshkin, who along with GRU military intelligence boss Igor Kostyukov, is one of Russia’s two most powerful spy chiefs, smiled and raised his eyebrows.

He added that correspondence between Russian intelligence and Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6, had been re-established.

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