In 2014, Vladimir Putin notoriously described the internet as originally a ‘special project of the CIA’ that ‘is still developing as such’. He is also averse to mobile phones, not using or owning one himself and banning them from his offices. These two concerns have come together in today’s announcement by the Federal Security Service (FSB) that it had uncovered a massive ‘multi-level operation’ to hack the smartphones of Russian officials. The FSB’s official announcement states that:
Using the technical capabilities of large international IT corporations and mobile communications, representatives of foreign intelligence agencies carried out the covert, unauthorised collection of various types of information from the devices of cyberattack targets.
But behind the dry prose is a tale of advanced electronic espionage. In particular, the claim is that Apple iPhones of Russian officials were infected with malware so that they could essentially be taken over: not only could calls be listened to and emails read, but the camera and microphone could be used to eavesdrop and watch, while geolocation data located the phone and its unwary user. The goal was apparently not simply to gain specific, actionable intelligence from officials’ conversations or even those held near them but also to use this as a means to gauge the mood of the country in general and the elite in particular.
This is likely another chapter in the ongoing spy war between Russia and the west
This operation is blamed on the US National Security Agency (NSA) – with ‘the coordination of several states’ – working with the American technology companies Cloudflare and Fastly. (As of writing, neither company has commented on the claim). To this end, the investigative department of the FSB has opened investigations under Articles 272 (illegal access to computer information) and 273 (creation, use and distribution of malicious computer programmes) of the Russian Criminal Code, although it is hard to see how this could meaningfully be brought to trial. Video footage released by the FSB showed Cloudflare and Fastly offices in San Francisco and London, as well as a building in New York.
At this stage this is all simply an allegation. One always needs to take FSB claims with more than a pinch of salt. This is, after all, the agency that has claimed that the west is developing genetically-modified ‘combat mosquitos’ to spread viruses amongst its foes and, in a staged photo of alleged terrorists, managed to confuse box sets of the video game The Sims for phone SIM cards.
However, it is hard to imagine that the NSA – and its various foreign partners, including Britain’s GCHQ – would not want to do this, were it technically possible. Russia is a ‘denied space’ in intelligence terms, in which it is very hard to operate on the ground. Using its technological edge is an obvious way round this, just as Russia’s intelligence services have stepped up their use of locally recruited proxies to make up for the mass expulsions of their officers from embassies in the west.
The FSB made the point that the ‘collection of data on contacts, plans and sentiments in society was planned to be carried out directly without intermediaries like NGOs’, precisely because it was cheaper, easier and safer for the US intelligence community.
It is not the first time Russia has made plausible claims about western electronic espionage. In 2014, similar allegations were made, albeit on a smaller scale. That time, the FSB said that phones belonging to foreign diplomats based in Russia had been hacked, and not just those of ‘usual suspects’ such as China and Syria, but even Israel and Nato members.
Last year, a transcript was leaked to the western media of separate conversations held by Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, with Kremlin economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev and US negotiator Steve Witkoff. The speculation was that Ushakov’s phone might have been infected with malware, allowing it to be used as a listening device.
A week ago, following the alleged discovery of Israeli software actively embedded in Russian traffic camera networks, FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov said that Iranian officials had been tracked and marked for assassination by hijacked CCTV cameras in Tehran.
In the main, this is likely just another chapter in the ongoing spy war between Russia and the west. However, while there may be a degree of Kremlin technoparanoia at work when it hypes the western threat, there may also be some political calculation.
There clearly is a growing sense of dissatisfaction and disillusion within the Russian elites. Warning them that the NSA may be listening to them helps to remind them that the FSB may be, too. The additional claim that the west uses intercepted conversations to gather compromising information on officials either to recruit them or add them to sanctions lists is a further spur to encourage them not just to observe better information security but also to curb their grumbles. From the Kremlin’s perspective, that’s a silver lining to this cloud.
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