UK points finger of blame for NotPetya at Russia

Initial attack vector of Ukrainian accounting firm always did indicate a Russian source for NotPetya

Britain has accused Russia of being the behind the NotPetya cyber attack last year, which caused hundreds of millions of pounds of damage to global businesses, including fast-moving consumer goods manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser, confectionery firm Cadbury's, and transportation companies Maersk and TNT Express.

Foreign Office minister Lord Ahmad has formally pointed the finger of blame at Russia for the NotPetya outbreak, which was initially propagated via the compromised update servers of a Ukrainian accounting software firm - a factor that meant that Russian state sources were always a number-one suspect.

"The UK Government judges that the Russian government, specifically the Russian military, was responsible for the destructive NotPetya cyber-attack of June 2017," said Lord Ahmad in a statement released today.

He continued: "The attack showed a continued disregard for Ukrainian sovereignty. Its reckless release disrupted organisations across Europe costing hundreds of millions of pounds."

Russia is currently waging a covert war against Ukraine, backing separatists in the east of the country against Ukraine's EU-leaning government.

Lord Ahmad called "upon Russia to be the responsible member of the international community it claims to be rather than secretly trying to undermine it".

The statement added: "The decision to publicly attribute this incident underlines the fact that the UK and its allies will not tolerate malicious cyber activity," describing it as an "attack masqueraded as a criminal enterprise".

It alleged that the purpose of the attack was to cause disruption to the flow of business across the UK and Europe - not just to specifically target Ukraine.

It added: "Primary targets were Ukrainian financial, energy and government sectors. Its indiscriminate design caused it to spread further, affecting other European and Russian business."

It is not the first time that the UK has pointed the finger of blame at Russia for hacking and conducting 'information warfare'. In November 2017, Prime Minister Theresa May claimed that Russia had been attempts to hack into IT systems during elections and had propagated so-called 'fake news'.

She said: "Russia is seeking to weaponise information. Deploying its state-run media organisations to plant fake stories and photo-shopped images in an attempt to sow discord in the West and undermine our institutions."

However, the Russian government has repeatedly rejected these claims.