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| The OPCW headquarters in The Hague. Photo: Wikimedia Commons |
Dutch intelligence agencies have thwarted an attempt
by Russian agents to hack into the wi-fi network of the Organisation for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based in The Hague.
Four agents from the GRU
military intelligence service were ejected from the Netherlands immediately
after the attempted breach was intercepted on April 13 this year, major-general Onno Eichelsheim, director of the military intelligence service MIVD, told apress conference in The Hague. He added that the OPCW’s security was not
breached.
The OPCW is carrying out forensic tests in the investigation into the
poisoning of the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in
Salisbury on March 4. The Skripals were targeted with a nerve agent known as
Novichok, developed in the former Soviet Union, but Moscow has denied any
involvement.
Eichelsheim said the four agents were operating out of a Citroen
car parked outside the Marriott Hotel, which is next to the organisations
headquarters on Johann de Wittlaan. They arrived in the country on April 10 on
diplomatic passports with almost identical serial numbers.
Close access
They
were disrupted while an attempt was made at a ‘close access hack operation’ at
around 4.30pm on Friday. Equipment found in the boot of the car included an
antenna pointed at the OPCW building and digital devices used to intercept
login details.
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| The car the Russians hired. Photo: Ministerie van defensie |
Eichelsheim said the four Russians were ‘clearly not here on holiday’. They
were carrying €20,000 and US $20,000 in cash, took their rubbish from their
hotel room when they left and tried to destroy their mobile phones when they
were intercepted. One of the phones had been activated close to the special
services centre in Moscow.
A further clue was the discovery of a taxi receipt
from GRU headquarters to Moscow airport.
The equipment the men surrendered also
included a laptop computer which had apparently been used to infiltrate the
Malaysian police and judicial authorities. Malaysia is involved in the
investigation into the shooting down of flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, which
the Netherlands holds Russia accountable for.
Data found on the laptop also
suggested it had been used in the Swiss city of Lausanne to hack into computers
belonging to the World Anti-Doping Agency, which is investigating institutional
drug use in Russian sport.
International co-operation
Defence minister Ank
Bijleveld said the Dutch government was sending out a clear message to Moscow
to stop undermining cybersecurity in other countries. The Russian ambassador to
The Hague has been summoned to appear before foreign minister Stef Blok.
‘The
Dutch cabinet is very concerned that the OPCW was the target of an interception
by the Russian military intelligence service,’ Bijleveld said.
‘I am proud of
the MIVD, they have done excellent work. I want to emphasise that co-operation
has played a big part in this success. Co-operation in the Netherlands, but
also with our international intelligence partners. Good international
co-operation is crucial in tackling threats such as the GRU.’
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| The men with a Russian embassy official at Schiphol. |
In response, Moscow issued its customary
blunt denial of all accusations of wrongdoing. Russian foreign ministry
spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed the allegations as ‘big fantasies’.
Prime
minister Mark Rutte issued a joint statement with his British counterpart
Theresa May earlier in the day condemning Russia’s ‘disregard for global
values.’
They said: ‘The GRU’s reckless operations stretch from destructive
cyber activity to the use of illegal nerve agents, as we saw in Salisbury. That
attack left four people fighting for their lives and one woman dead.
‘Our
action today reinforces the clear message from the international community. We
will uphold the rules-based international system, and defend international
institutions from those that seek to do them harm.’
US charges
Major-general
Eichelsheim said the government had taken the unusual step of releasing details
of the operation after US officials published charges against a number of
Russian intelligence agents on Thursday. The Dutch government hopes that making
the information public will make it harder for Russia to carry out such covert
operations in future.
British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said the incident
was ‘part of a pattern of cyber-attacks’ in other countries in which the
Russian government was implicated.
He said: ‘If anyone had any questions in
their mind about Russian military involvement in the Salisbury attacks, this
will put to rest those doubts because we have evidence of the Russian military
launching a cyber-attack on the very international organisation in the
Netherlands set up to investigate those novichok attacks. And why would you do
that if you weren’t the guilty party?’
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