UK government suffers Zeus attack

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William Hague reveals government computers were infected last December

The UK government fell victim to a cyber attack using the notorious information-stealing Zeus malware in late December, according to foreign secretary William Hague.

Speaking at the high-profile Munich Security Conference on Friday, Hague revealed that the attack was part of an international effort to infect systems.

"In late December a spoofed email purporting to be from the White House was sent to a large number of international recipients who were directed to click on a link that then downloaded a variant of Zeus," he explained.

"The UK government was targeted in this attack and a large number of emails bypassed some of our filters. Our experts were able to clear up the infection, but more sophisticated attacks such as these are becoming more common."

Hague also referred to two other recent incidents to emphasise the scale and volume of attacks on government systems. One involved an attempt to steal information relating to the UK's nuclear Trident programme, while the other involved a scam email sent to three Foreign Office staff.

"The email claimed to be about a forthcoming visit to the region and looked quite innocent," he said.

"In fact it was from a hostile state intelligence agency and contained computer code embedded in the attached document that would have attacked their machine. Luckily, our systems identified it and stopped it from ever reaching my staff."

Hague took the opportunity to push the UK's international allies into seeking international agreement on how they should act in cyber space, and offered to hold a conference in London later in the year.

The foreign secretary's revelation will come as no surprise to security experts, especially given the repeated warnings of cyber attack from the likes of home secretary Teresa May and GCHQ director Iain Lobban.

In addition, new research from the EU found that a third of internet users have been infected with some form of computer virus in the past 12 months.

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