Britain Blames Russia For Cyber Attacks On Global Businesses and Ukraine Government

Britain has held the Russian government responsible for the cyber attacks on the businesses across Europe last year.

British Foreign Minister Tariq Ahmad said in a statement: "the U.K. government judges that the Russian government, specifically the Russian military, was responsible for the destructive NotPetya cyberattack of June 2017", Mainichi Japan reports.

The fast-spreading outbreak of data-scrambling software centered on Ukraine, which is embroiled in a conflict with Moscow-backed separatists in the country's east. It spread to companies that do business with Ukraine, including U.S. pharmaceutical company Merck, Danish shipping firm A.P. Moller-Maersk and FedEx subsidiary TNT.

Ahmad said Thursday that the "reckless" attack cost organizations hundreds of millions of dollars.

British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson accused Russia of "undermining democracy, wrecking livelihoods by targeting critical infrastructure, and weaponizing information" with malicious cyberattacks.

Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, had said in July 2017 that it had obtained data that point to a link with an attack on the nation's capital, Kiev, in December.

However, the attack also hit major Russian firms, leading some cyber security researchers to suggest that Moscow was not behind it.

But SBU went on to explain in a statement that - through data obtained from international anti-virus companies - it had established a connection with a previous attack involving the so-called Petya virus, which it alleges was not designed to secure ransom payments.

The SBU later said the ransom demand was a cover, adding that the attack was aimed at disrupting the operations of state and private companies in Ukraine and causing political destabilisation.

The lack of any real mechanism for securing financial payments, the SBU said, led the agency to this assumption.