Russia-based cyber attackers have been accused of allegedly hacking into the systems of United Kingdom-based companies that are termed as a vital installation to the country.
These include the national power grid and various broadcasting stations. The scope of the claim centers around the accusation that hackers are violating into the countries affairs.
For a long period, the Russians have been accused of hacking into foreign companies to retrieve vital information and give themselves a cutting edge.
Sometimes this is not the case but rather the hackers are carrying out their operation simply for the purpose of compromising the organization that's targeted.
Russian hackers are the most lucrative ones around the globe; this is after they developed different malware and ransomware which affected millions of computers remotely over the course of this year.
They are also purported to be the origin of most of the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks that have taken place around the world recently.
If an attack is directed to sensitive government and public infrastructures like the electric power grid, it is likely to cause a lot of tension among the public at large.
Modern-day hackers often launch their projects with the goal to bring down governments in order for their propaganda to thrive.
Different U.K. leaders and officials of concern have come out and condemned the heinous act vehemently from the Russian hackers.
At the same time, the presidential administration of Vladimir Putin has unanimously dismissed the allegations, this claiming they are not behind the hacking.
Due to the difference between these two countries, a growing sense of tension has been rising even in their diplomatic relations. Experts have termed the recent accusations on Russia as harmful to the country's diplomatic growth with other nations.
The hacking of the U.K. energy power grid, the media entities and the telecom companies was confirmed by officials from the National Cyber Security Centre.
The head of this organization, Ciaran Martin, was first to confirm the Russian interference with major installations in the U.K.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has also publically accused Vladimir Putin of being involved with the hackers that compromised the United Kingdom.
The hackers have gone ahead and taken down emails that are used by the parliamentarians for their internal communications.
When accusing the Russian counterparts, May also warned of stern action to be taken against their illegal activities. The U.K. Prime Minister promised the citizens of her country that their sovereignty would be protected at all cost from external forces.
Presently, the hack shows no clear motive in terms of why the attackers chose to target the specific companies involved. The hackers have not been mentioned in any instance requesting for a ransom from any of the U.K. companies that were compromised.
There are scant details on the hacking that was directed to the U.K. companies or even its effect, as those who are tasked with carrying out further investigations are skeptical at this stage.
This leaves the general public with only speculations on the matter.
May has also accused the Russians of interfering with elections.
This happened last year when the U.K. decided to exit the European Union in the historic Brexit decision.
Earlier this year, a study by the University of Edinburgh found that Russian hackers did interfere with the referendum on Brexit.
They concluded that over 400 fake Twitter accounts were used to publish a substantial amount of posts concerning Brexit in attempt to try and influence the referendum.
Different members of parliament have commented on the matter regarding Russia-based hackers meddling with the U.K.'s affairs. Some have been cited even blaming the hacking on North Korea's administration, which has been the most controversial in the recent times.
The U.K. has a body that is mandated with keeping at bay any form of cyber attacks that are directed to any organization within the country.
The National Cyber Security Centre has helped the nation mitigate many recent large-scale cyber attacks this year, notably the Wannacry ransomware attack that took place over the summer.
Although the effects of the recent U.K.-targeted cyber attack are not measured in full yet, officials from the affected companies and vital installations have taken measures to stop the hackers from completely taking over their systems.
With the help from government cybersecurity departments, the U.K. has been able to fight external enemies in the form of hackers.
Although not all forces are dealt with, challenging the current increase in cybercrimes originating from Russia has been the priority of most developed countries.
Most governments are spending a lot of money and resources to mitigate any form of cyber attack, which is a growing risk.
In recent times, Russia has been accused in many instances of sponsoring hackers for politically motivated hacks on rival nations. They have been cited meddling with the 2016 United States presidential election all in favor of the current administration.
This was after the hackers leaked emails belonging to the Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton and her campaign.
Presently in the U.K., the National Cyber Security Centre has advised that the threat is at an alarming level, likely to result in other Russian state-sponsored hacks.
The country is currently under the threat of being explicitly compromised by hackers who want to take control of companies' systems for malicious acts.
Currently, the U.K. administration will have to be a step up beyond the mind of the hacker in case they want to protect themselves.
The Russian government continues to deny the U.K.'s claims that they were responsible for the attack, even going so far as to tweet directly to Teresa May to dismiss her accusations.
Only time and further investigation will reveal the truth about what happened and who was responsible for the hacking directed to the United Kingdom's major economic forces.
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