Russian hackers have stolen the login details of British government officials and gained access to their email accounts, the Telegraph reported on Sunday.
The attackers exploited a weakness in the security system and used previously stolen data to bypass barriers protecting critical infrastructure, the UK newspaper said.
The attack, which was still ongoing on Sunday evening, is known as “FortiBleed,” according to the report. Security researchers said Russian state involvement had not yet been proven.
A list of compromised accounts seen by the Telegraph shows that access data was siphoned off from Foreign Office staff posted overseas and from local authority officials across Great Britain. The accounts included those of IT staff at British embassies in Thailand and Mauritius as well as employees in the central English county of Derbyshire and the London borough of Waltham Forest.
The attack involved email addresses and the corresponding passwords, the report said. The access data were being offered for sale on dark web forums.
The credentials on sale included, according to the report, login details for the National Health Service (NHS), energy suppliers and key medicine suppliers across the country.
