London, Oct 29 (AFP\/APP): UK opposition politicians called for an investigation Saturday after a newspaper reported that suspected Kremlin agents had hacked ex-Prime Minister Liz Truss’s cell phone when she was foreign minister.<\/p>\n
In an unconfirmed report, The Mail on Sunday cited unnamed security sources as saying that Truss’s personal mobile phone had been hacked “by agents suspected of working for the Kremlin”.<\/p>\n
They are believed to have gained access to “top-secret exchanges with international partners”.<\/p>\n
A government spokesperson said: “We do not comment on individuals’ security arrangements” but added that there are “robust systems in place to protect against cyber threats”.<\/p>\n
The hackers also gained access to Truss’s conversations with her ally Kwasi Kwarteng criticising then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the report claimed.<\/p>\n
Labour’s Yvette Cooper, who focuses on homeland security, said the report raises “immensely important national security issues” including why and how the information was leaked.<\/p>\n
“It is essential that all of these security issues are being investigated and addressed at the very highest level,” she said.<\/p>\n
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson Layla Moran said: “We need an urgent independent investigation to uncover the truth.”<\/p>\n
The BBC and Sky News said they had not been able to verify the report.<\/p>\n
A source told the paper the “compromised” phone has been placed inside a locked safe in a secure government location after up to a year’s messages were hacked including “highly sensitive discussions” on the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The hacking was discovered in the summer when Truss was foreign minister and campaigning to become party leader and the next prime minister, the paper reported.<\/p>\n
It claimed that “details were suppressed” by Johnson when prime minister and Simon Case, his most senior policy adviser.<\/p>\n
The reported incident comes after interior minister Suella Braverman was reappointed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak following her resignation over a security breach, in which she reportedly sent a top-secret document to an MP via her personal email.<\/p>\n
The article did not make clear on what basis Russia was suspected to be behind the alleged attack.<\/p>\n
But it quoted a security source as saying: “It takes a while to track who is behind attacks like these, but Russia tends to top the list.”<\/p>\n
Former Tory leader, MP Iain Duncan Smith told the newspaper: “Russia does this all the time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
London, Oct 29 (AFP\/APP): UK opposition politicians called for an investigation Saturday after a newspaper reported that suspected Kremlin agents had hacked ex-Prime Minister Liz Truss’s cell phone when she was foreign minister. In an unconfirmed report, The Mail on Sunday cited unnamed security sources […]<\/p>\n
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