Spy chiefs have ordered ministers to stop using their personal phones to conduct government business following a suspected Kremlin hack on Liz Truss’s mobile.
A Whitehall source said all ministers involved in national security would be expected to attend fresh training with the security services this week ‘to ensure everyone is aware how this material should be handled’.
Ministers will be warned they should never use their personal mobile phones to conduct Government business as they are likely to be the target of hostile states such as Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.
Pauline Neville-Jones, former chairman of Britain’s joint intelligence committee, yesterday said she was ‘not at all tolerant of the notion that it’s OK for ministers to use private mobile phones’.
The warnings follow astonishing revelations in yesterday’s Mail on Sunday that Miss Truss’s personal mobile was spied on by hackers thought to be working for Moscow while she was foreign secretary.
Spy chiefs have ordered ministers to stop using their personal phones to conduct government business following a suspected Kremlin hack on Liz Truss’s mobile
The hack was discovered during the Tory leadership contest in the summer, but a news blackout was ordered by Boris Johnson and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case. Even MPs and officials with top level security clearance were kept in the dark.
Miss Truss is said to have been so worried about the potential damage to her leadership bid that she ‘had trouble sleeping’ until the news was suppressed.
Messages dating back up to a year are thought to have been downloaded, including highly sensitive discussions with fellow foreign ministers about issues such as arms shipments to Ukraine.
Hacked messages are said to have included private criticisms of Mr Johnson by Miss Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, potentially opening them up to blackmail attempts at a time when they were both senior ministers in his government.
Parliamentary sources yesterday said the shocking incident was now likely to be investigated by the Intelligence and Security Committee, which oversees the work of the security services.
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Source: Suspected Kremlin hack on Liz Truss’s mobile sparks security clampdown | Daily Mail Online
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