12 2GM Tuesday July 28 2020 | the times
News
Chinese cyberagents are suspected of
being behind a campaign against a
senior Conservative MP involving
hacking attempts and online
impersonations.
Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the
Commons foreign affairs select com-
mittee, said last night that he had been
subjected to concerted efforts to access
his email account and discredit him
professionally and personally.
The National Cyber Security Centre
(NCSC), a division of GCHQ, the
government listening post, was called
in to examine attacks on his communi-
cations and attempts to impersonate
him online. Google’s security team also
investigated the origins of “spoof”
email accounts set up to mimic him and
found that the ultimate users were
based in China.
“It strikes me as extremely unlikely
that it was not state-led if it was from
China,” the MP said. “It doesn’t have to
was a huge mistake to view Mr Putin’s
Russia as a civilised state,” he said. “He
will do whatever he wants.”
Mr Dubov was a friend and business
partner of Boris Berezovsky, who made
billions buying up assets after the Sovi-
et Union collapsed. They won asylum
in 2003, when the Kremlin sought their
extradition. Despite several alleged as-
sassination attempts on Mr Berezovsky
in London, neither was given security
support from MI5, Mr Dubov said.
In 2008 Mr Dubov and Mr Berezov-
sky, along with Badri Patarkatsishvili
and Nikolai Glushkov, gave statementsBritish intelligence services repeatedly
ignored warnings from Russian dissi-
dents about the threat from Moscow,
according to the last surviving member
of a group of businessmen opposed to
President Putin.
Yuli Dubov said that he and other
Russians in Britain had called on MI5 to
devote more resources to the Kremlin.
Mr Dubov, 72, was one of four exiles
who gave sworn statements about
corruption in Russia. The other three
have died in suspicious circumstances.
Tom Ball
Hackers ‘based in China’ targeted
Tory MP with campaign of lies
Lucy Fisher Defence Editor have been literally [sent] by their
version of GCHQ, but in some way
state-supported.”
Further evidence was found of
Chinese, Iranian and Ethiopian
hackers attempting to breach his email
account. Ethiopian hacking groups are
often paid to conduct operations on be-
half of Russian cyberactors. It is impos-
sible to verify whether any of the at-
tempts were successful, he said.
Mr Tugendhat, 47, first became sus-
picious at the end of last year, when he
was contacted by a journalist from the
South China Morning Post who asked
about a press release that had purport-
edly been issued by him but of which he
had no knowledge.
Shortly afterwards he was alerted by
family and friends, who had received
unlikely emails that appeared to be
from him, using addresses similar to his
own. These impersonation emails
made a series of bizarre and untrue
claims about his personal life.
He told The Times that he had initial-
ly been surprised by the “spoofing”
campaign and uncertain of the motives
behind it. “I presume it is designed to
cause a nuisance and cause confusion... It’s designed to warn you off and let
you know ‘we’re here’.”
Asked whether he was scared by the
campaign, he said: “No. It’s just rather
pathetic.” He said that the malicious
activity appeared to start when he
became more outspoken about Bei-
jing’s activities in Hong Kong.
He urges his contacts to double check
the origins of emails said to be from
him, and avoid opening attachments
that have not been scanned for viruses.
In a separate interview that will be
broadcast on Times Radio today he
explained that some of the fake emails
were highly implausible. One claimed
to be an announcement of a change in
UK foreign policy. “As anybody knows,
foreign affairs committee chairs don’t
announce policy on behalf of govern-
ments,” he said.
Mr Tugendhat, who has become a
high-profile China hawk and is a co-
founder of the parliamentary China
Research Group, said that he would not
be deterred from speaking out on sub-
jects that were uncomfortable for Bei-
jing. “I’m not going to let foreign dicta-
tors decide who speaks for parliament
on foreign affairs,” he said.
Other vocal China critics based in
Britain have experienced similar
nuisance campaigns. Benedict Rogers,
chairman of UK-based advocacy orga-
nisation Hong Kong Watch, has been
the subject of a postal campaign that
began in 2018.
Last night he echoed Mr Tugendhat’s
refusal to be cowed, saying: “I must be
doing something right to provoke this
kind of response.”
The NCSC said that the centre
“works closely with political parties,
local authorities and MPs, who are
offered access to the best cybersecurity
guidance and support”.
Tom Tugendhat appears on Times Radio
with Matt Chorley from 10am todaySecurity service ‘ignored warnings about Putin threat’
MI5 made a “huge mistake” in not
paying more attention to Russia, Mr
Dubov said. Only recently, he added,
had the UK started to recognise the
“great threat” posed by Mr Putin.
The report released last week on
Russian interference in British demo-
cratic processes said that MI5 had
devoted only 3 per cent of its effort to
tackling foreign hostile states, and had
taken its “eye off the ball” on Russia.
Mr Dubov welcomed the report but
said that it was too late, adding that
election meddling was probably a pre-
cursor to more acts of aggression. “Itin the City office of Lord Goldsmith,
QC, a former attorney-general. Hours
later Mr Patarkatsishvili collapsed and
died at his estate in Surrey, aged 52. A
post-mortem examination found that
he had had a heart attack.
Mr Berezovksy was found hanged at
home in 2013. A coroner recorded an
open verdict but friends believed he
had been targeted by Mr Putin.
Police are investigating the death of
Mr Glushkov at his home in southwest
London in 2018. His daughter, who
found him, described the scene as a
“trashy set-up of a suicide”.MI6 tried to
hide secrets
from judge
Charlie Parker
MI6 has been accused of “inappropri-
ate interference” after two staff alle-
gedly tried to conceal secret material
during a court case. The officers had
asked Susan Cobb, the secretary of the
investigatory powers tribunal, which
oversees complaints against the intelli-
gence agencies, to prevent a judge from
seeing sensitive documents.
The spy agency has been forced to
apologise for the incident, which oc-
curred during a case about whether it
was lawful for the intelligence agencies
to authorise informants to participate
in murder, torture and other crimes.
It happened last year but could not be
reported until now after a special hear-
ing of the tribunal. The judge, Lord
Justice Singh, demanded that no simi-
lar incident should ever be repeated.
During the proceedings, two MI
officers told Ms Cobb that the tribunal
should not have been provided with
sensitive documents potentially rele-
vant to the case. She told MI6 that this
amounted to “inappropriate interfer-
ence”.
Yesterday lawyers for Reprieve,
Privacy International and the Pat Finu-
cane Centre, the groups in the case,
called for the tribunal to determine
whether an order to interfere in the
case had come from MI6 directors.Briton moved
to notorious
Iranian jail
Emma Yeomans, Lucy Fisher
A British-Australian academic jailed in
Iran for espionage has been moved to a
notorious facility alongside violent
inmates where hundreds of prisoners
sleep on the floor, according to a human
rights activist.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a Cambridge
graduate who was jailed for ten years,
has been moved to Qarchak prison,
said Reza Khandan, a former political
prisoner and husband of Nasrin Sotou-
deh, a jailed human rights lawyer.
Qarchak houses more than 1,
prisoners, according to one report. It has
no cells and instead has halls, each
holding up to 600 prisoners. Some have
bunk beds but most sleep on the floor.
According to Amnesty, prisoners have
reported urine-stained floors, filthy
showers and bathroom facilities, the
presence of contagious diseases and a
severe bed shortage.
Ms Moore-Gilbert was said to have
been moved into the prison this week
and transferred to a quarantine facility,
which is standard for new arrivals. She
is believed to be the first foreign prison-
er to have been moved to Qarchak. She
managed to borrow a phone card and
spoke to Mr Khandan, one source said.
Ms Moore-Gilbert, an academic at
the University of Melbourne, was
arrested in September 2018. She was
placed in Evin jail where she has spent
more than 600 days in solitary
confinement.
Mr Khandan said that she had not
been allowed to speak to her family in a
month. She was said to be in bad shape,
eating and sleeping very little.
A British source with knowledge of
the Iranian judicial and prison system
said that it was likely to be a way of put-
ting pressure on Australia and Britain.Somewhere... Parting storm clouds gave walkers a spectacular view of the Langdale Pikes in the Lake District shortly after sunrise yesterday. Forecast, page 52
CHRIS ORANGE/SWNS