Former UK cyber-security chief slams Farage’s ‘Russian hacker’ claim as “entirely without merit”

Nigel Farage’s desperate claim that a Russian hacker leaked his financial records to the Guardian is “without any merit”, according to Ciaran Martin, the founding chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

Over the weekend of 23 May, Farage told the Mail that Reform-employed ‘counter-espionage experts’ found “sophisticated hallmarks” of “hostile state actors” behind the alleged data-security breach.

Farage is begging us not to look at the donation

The ‘Russian hack’ gambit was the Reform leader’s latest attempt at a distraction from his undeclared £5m ‘gift’ from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. Farage originally claimed the gift was for ‘security’ before changing his tune, calling the money a ‘reward’ for his hard work campaigning for Brexit.

Whatever the purpose, Farage purchased, in cash, a £1.4m house mere months after Harborne’s kind gesture. In the same month he also put in applications to redevelop another Kent property. Likewise, later that year, Farage’s partner Laure Ferrari splashed £885,000 up front on a Clacton property.

Apparently, this was too much corruption even for the UK political establishment. The parliamentary standards commissioner has confirmed that they’re investigating Farage for a potential breach of the members’ code of conduct. Fingers crossed, this could even end up triggering a by-election in Clacton-on-Sea.

Understandably, given the potentially massive ramifications, Reform’s usually limelight-loving leader has been ducking interviews left, right, and centre. And then, of course, there’s his claim that he only started talking about the dodgy £5m because of a Russian hack.

‘The sophisticated hallmarks of a nation state actor’

On 23 May, Farage stated that counter-espionage experts in the employ of his party had uncovered signs that Moscow-linked hackers used spear phishing techniques to access his bank accounts, phone, and email. In the Mail, a Reform source claimed the alleged incident:

bore all the sophisticated hallmarks of a nation state actor using destabilisation techniques in the run-up to this month’s local elections.

You heard it straight from the horse’s mouth, folks. The Russians are using every tool at their disposal to stop Reform from taking control of Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council. If only Putin had known that he could just wait for the far-right party to take itself out.

According to Farage, just four people were even aware of the £5m gift. However, as the Canary’s Willem Moore reported, no one actually cares how the financial records leaked. Instead, people are very concerned with the fact that the far-right stooge has failed to provide any evidence for this alleged hack.

‘He’s not produced a shred of evidence’

Now, ex-NCSC chief Ciaran Martin has come forward to state that Farage’s wild claims would have massive repercussions for the UK’s policies regarding Russia. If, that is, any of the story were actually true. Martin explained that:

An aspiring prime minister has essentially claimed that Russia has launched an unprecedentedly aggressive intervention – a malicious intervention – in British politics, and he’s not produced a shred of evidence to support that claim.

He’s made a serious foreign policy and national security allegation which if true would have massive implications for British policy towards Russia.

It is a very, very serious thing to allege. It would be a national security issue. If it is true, the government should be in emergency session in COBR [Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms] right now considering their response to the most serious Russian intervention in internal British affairs for years.

On the contrary, the Guardian reported its understanding that Farage hasn’t even bothered to ask for the NCSC’s help with his scary (and definitely 100% real) Russian hacker yet.

Russians ‘don’t leave a little flag’

Martin was also quick to call out the outlandish nature of Reform’s claim to have employed ‘counter-espionage experts’. Likewise, he also questioned how exactly they arrived at the conclusion that ‘Moscow did it’. Martin explained that the Russians “don’t leave a little flag on a device”:

To take one phone and say my phone, email and bank account has been hacked, and it’s got the imprint of the Russian state, that’s a hell of a technical leap to do that on the basis of a single device analysis. […]

You need detailed technical evidence, some of which is sometimes not even available to the private sector. That is why for an accusation of this magnitude the only right port of call is the British security services, and in this case, specifically the National Cyber Security Centre in GCHQ [Government Communications Headquarters].

Martin didn’t want to rule out the possibility of a hack completely. That’s probably fair, given that (like the rest of the country) he hasn’t seen any of Reform’s evidence yet. However, he was unequivocal on the point that Farage – if he is telling the truth – is making a pig’s ear of the incident:

What he has described would not just be hacking by Russia, but what we call a hack-and-leak operation, which is a different thing.

It is way more serious because it violates international norms, and it’s a direct intervention aimed at destabilising our democracy and our politics in a way that spying isn’t. […]

An aspiring prime minister should treat it with the utmost seriousness and cooperate fully with the National Cyber Security Centre and any other relevant authority; otherwise you should not make these accusations, because they’re way too serious to just be bandied around.

Lying, incompetent, or both?

So, let’s run through things, just to sum it up. Farage claimed that Russian agents hacked his accounts to leak his financial details to the Guardian. His party’s supposed counter-espionage experts, if they exist, are apparently working at a level beyond the private sector’s actual capabilities.

In spite of public pressure, the Reform leader has provided no evidence to back up his story. It’s a massive allegation against Russia, which could have lasting effects on UK foreign policy towards the Putin administration.

However, Farage is utterly failing to treat the incident with the magnitude it deserves – he hasn’t even gone to the government agency specifically set up to handle matters of national cyber-security.

That leaves us with a simple question: is Farage lying, incompetent, or both? Personally, the Canary’s money is on ‘both’. And this is the tosser who wants to be the next prime minister? You’re having a laugh.

Featured image via Getty/Toby Melville