Russian hackers behind NHS attack are part of Kremlin-protected cyber army

Russian hackers behind the NHS attack are part of a wider cyber army working under the Kremlin’s protection to try to destabilise the UK ahead of the election, i can reveal.

European investigators on the frontline of hunting Russian cyber criminals have found that hacking group Qilin, which has been held responsible for the attack, is merely one arm of a much wider web of hacking affiliates.

Hackers, using servers based in Russia, are working under Moscow’s protection to carry out attacks on UK critical infrastructure. The recent attack on the NHS has been seen as a “major escalation” of the Kremlin’s use of cyber warfare, according to investigators, whose work i was given exclusive access to.

The hacking syndicate, made up of more than 100 groups, is not believed to be under the direct control of the Russian government but is rather seen as a useful tool of global disruption that the Kremlin is happy to turn a blind eye to. Hackers enjoy safe haven in Russia, from where they carry out ransomware attacks, so long as they do not cross red lines or cause too much diplomatic uproar, i has been told.

Ciaran Martin, the former chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), told i: “The Russian state does not control or direct criminal cyber groups, but it does in effect set the parameters of who they are allowed to attack.”

Internal messages between the Russian hackers, seen by i, show them asking a higher authority from the group’s leadership for permission to attack specific targets in the UK on previous occasions.

Until earlier this month, attacks on other nation’s healthcare services which could potentially lead to casualties were seen as “off limits” by the Kremlin. But the attack on NHS provider Synnovis on 3 June represents a loosening of the reins that the hacking groups work under, leading to national security concerns among Western intelligence agencies.

A detailed security briefing from European investigators on the forefront of the West’s fight against Russian cyber crime groups, and interviews with three UK sources, reveal the worrying escalation in cyber warfare against Britain ahead of the election.

All of the UK sources warned that the…