Ciaran Martin, founding director of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), has described Reform UK leader Nigel Farage’s claim as ‘without any merit’. Farage had said a Russian hack was responsible for a Guardian report on a £5 million donation from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. Martin said the allegation was ‘entirely unsubstantiated’ and that Farage had ‘not provided a shred of evidence’.
The former NCSC chief stressed that such an operation by the Kremlin would be an ‘unprecedentedly aggressive intervention’ in British democracy. If the claim were true, the government would need to convene the COBR emergency committee to respond to the most serious Russian interference in internal affairs in years. Martin urged Farage to contact the NCSC and disclose the technical evidence for his claim.
According to the Guardian, Farage has not yet asked the NCSC to investigate his alleged finding. The Reform UK leader had portrayed the revelation about the million-pound donation as the result of a Russian ‘hack-and-leak’ operation, without providing evidence. Martin said a prospective prime minister had thus made a serious foreign and security policy accusation.
Source: www.theguardian.com
