Liz Truss, who served as a British prime minister of the UK for almost a little more than a fortnight, i.e., between Sept 6th to October 25th, 2022, is back in news for becoming a victim of an espionage campaign.
According to a report released by The Mail, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was targeted by a cyber-attack leaking her personal email conversation and details of UK’s stand on Ukraine’s war with Kremlin, when she was serving as foreign secretary.
Cybersecurity Insiders learnt she suffered a digital attack that might apparently be led by a hacking group from Moscow. And the attack took place as she was using smart phone handset that lacked essential security updates.
But when she was emerging as a probable candidate to take on reigns of ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the government issued her a new handset, thus saving her from further embarrassment.
In the year 2020-21, a Political Leader and a high-profile oil entrepreneur from the UAE was accused of hacking phones of many political dignitaries from the UK through a spying software Pegasus. Those hailing from Downing Street and the Foreign Office were also among the victims’ list of the spying incident.
Now, news is out that Ms. Truss also became a victim of cyber-attack, leading to the leak of classified information from her mobile device.
Often, usage of old smart phones and computing gadgets leads to a spill of critical info from the devices. And this is what is suspected to have happened in this case as well.
Publicly making their contact numbers available and usage of obsolete hardware and software is prohibited as per the protocol of British Parliamentarian Security. However, some leaders cannot understand the underlying essence of creating such protocols and that is doing substantial damage to the careers of some beloved politicians.
Boris Johnson posted his contact number online a few years ago, and it was still there even after he took charge as the head of the United Kingdom. Joe Biden, the US President, is also seen carrying an old Samsung phone that the security staff deem to lack basic security updates.
While the Ex-President Donald Trump and the now Vice President Kamala Harris have a penchant to do what is being advised by the IT staff and are using highly secure devices for personal and office communications.
