Experts pour cold borscht on Farage's Russian hack claim

National security and digital forensics experts have called foul on Nigel Farage's "disturbing" and unsubstantiated claim that Russia was behind the leak of a story about the UK politician receiving a 5 million gift from a crypto billionaire. Sources inside Farage's right-wing Reform UK told the Mail on Sunday that the party leader believes Russian spies hacked his phone and relayed details about Christopher Harborne's gift, a matter of which only four people were aware. Farage was said to have engaged outside "counter-espionage experts" to perform a technical analysis of his device - analysis that was said to point to Russia. According to Peter Sommer, professor of digital forensics at Birmingham City University, whichever outfit was entrusted to carry out this work would have been looking for two different types of markers to prove Russia was involved. These would be either the phishing message Farage clicked on that allowed Russia to access his private communications or the malware code an attacker used to exfiltrate them. "It's obviously trivial to disguise the source of an email, so that doesn't help," Sommer told The Register. "And the second thing is if you're talking about looking for hacking codes, hackers, whether they are juveniles or people in major SIGINT systems, are likely to be stealing from each other, so there's nothing unique about a code that would say where it comes from." Sommer also highlighted that advanced intelligence powers have tools at their disposal to obfuscate the source of malicious code. The CIA's leaked Marble Framework supposedly had the ability to translate malicious code into any language, including those used by its chief adversaries. "Now, absent from that, how on Earth do you determine that this is a Russian hack?" Sommer asked. Neither Farage nor Reform UK has spoken officially on the alleged Russian phone hack. They have not specified which experts on whose conclusions they used to make the claims, they have not stated what evidence pointed to Russia's involvement, and they have not committed to making this forensic assessment available for public scrutiny. Opening up the data for verification was one of the core issues raised by Ciaran Martin, founding chief executive of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), who labeled Farage's claims "disturbing" and "without any merit." Speaking to The Guardian, Martin said that not only is the lack of clear evidence concerning, but also if Russia was behind the hack-and-leak operation, a deliberate attempt at destabilizing a foreign democracy, then it would have significant consequences for the UK's Russia policy. "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," Martin said. "It is a very, very serious thing to allege. It would be a national security issue," he added. "If it is true, the government should be in emergency session in COBR right now, considering their response to the most serious Russian intervention in internal British affairs for years." He said the claims published by the Mail on Sunday, at present, are unsubstantiated, and if true, in normal circumstances, this would prompt a formal government response. The Reg understands that the NCSC has not been engaged by Farage or Reform UK over the matter. The National Crime Agency did not respond to questions regarding its involvement and the Metropolitan Police Service declined to comment. Reform UK did not respond to our requests for more information, nor did Nigel Farage's office. What exactly did Reform UK claim? According to sources who spoke to the Mail on Sunday, Russian spies hacked Farage's phone, ascertained details about Harborne's 5 million donation to the party leader, and leaked it to The Guardian, which first reported the story. The Guardian said at the weekend that Farage is now under "mounting pressure" to prove his claim about the Russian phone hack. There is no indication the Graun 's reporting was connected to any illegal activity or Russian spies, but Farage is implying so, telling the Mail on Sunday: "This shocking revelation brings into question The Guardian's judgment and whether Reform can cooperate with them in future." According to the analysis of Farage's phone, carried out by the unidentified counter-espionage experts, the findings were "almost certainly linked to Moscow," the Reform UK source said. They also claimed that spear-phishing tactics were used to compromise his phone, email, and bank accounts. "It bore all the sophisticated hallmarks of a nation-state actor using destabilization techniques in the run-up to this month's local elections," the source added. Farage said: "These actions by Russia are deeply concerning and highlight the threat they pose to British security." Regarding the motive for such an attack, Reform UK believes its leader angered Russian president Vladimir Putin by previously expressing support for NATO. He has said in the past that UK forces should shoot down Russian aircraft if they enter NATO airspace, and joined controversial calls for Ukraine to be admitted to the military alliance. The party also said that Harborne may be a target for the Russian regime because he joined former prime minister Boris Johnson on a trip to Ukraine in 2022, designed to showcase the impact of Russia's invasion earlier that year. (R)