Spy poisoning: UK on high alert against Russian cyber-attack threat
March 18, 2018 20:42
Britain's banks, energy and water companies are all said to be on high alert against the threat of a possible Russian cyber-attack amid an escalating diplomatic row between the two countries over the poisoning of a former Russian double agent on British soil.
Fears that Moscow could target Britain's critical national infrastructure came as Russia's ambassador to the European Union suggested a UK research laboratory could be the source of the deadly nerve agent used in the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
When you have a nerve agent or whatever, you check it against certain samples that you retain in your laboratories. And Porton Down, as we now all know, is the largest military facility in the United Kingdom that has been dealing with chemical weapons research. And it's actually only eight miles from Salisbury," Vladimir Chizhov told the BBC.
He stressed that Russia had nothing to do with the poisoning and that it did not stockpile the poison. Chizhov's comments came as a Russian foreign ministry spokesperson also tried to lay the blame on Britain, saying the UK was one of the most likely sources of the nerve agent, along with the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden or possibly the US.
Meanwhile, officers from Britain's Special Branch of intelligence and security services are investigating death threats against another Russian dissident living in the UK, who has received a series of threatening emails linking his fate to Skripal.
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