Russian hackers have breached email accounts and stolen login credentials of British government officials and critical infrastructure workers, and are now selling the data on the darknet for $60,000, according to media reports on Monday.
The compromised accounts belong to employees at UK embassies in Thailand and Mauritius, as well as civil servants in Derbyshire and London. The hackers also gained access to IT systems of energy companies and the National Health Service, a key provider of medicines including pharmacy networks, laboratories, and raw-material suppliers used in drug manufacturing.
British cybersecurity experts told [Deutsche Welle](https://www.dw.com/ru/the-telegraph-hakery-iz-rf-vzlomali-akkaunty-britanskih-cinovnikov/a-77842526) that the hackers operated from Russian territory and that the Kremlin either tolerates or directly coordinates such attacks. The breach affected more than 80,000 firewalls built by the U.S.-based cybersecurity firm Fortinet.
####Wider pattern of attacks
European countries including Germany, Poland and Denmark have previously reported similar cyberattacks and blamed them on Russian-linked hacker groups. The UK incident comes amid a broader campaign of hybrid operations that Western officials say Moscow is waging against democratic states.
The exposure of NHS-linked data could pose direct risks to patient safety if the information is used to disrupt medicine supplies or hospital operations, experts warned. The energy-sector intrusion mirrors Russia’s long-standing policy of using energy leverage as a geopolitical tool, now translated into the digital realm, according to analysts cited in the report.
British authorities have not yet issued an official statement on the breach. The darknet listing offers access to the stolen accounts for $60,000, an unusually high price indicating the value of the compromised systems.
