Russia spied on foreign powers at last month's G20 summit by giving delegations USB pen drives capable of downloading sensitive information from laptops, it was claimed today. | They were Soviet pen drives, so they were as big as a toaster... |
Downing Street said David Cameron was not given one of the USB sticks said to have contained a Trojan horse programme, but did not rule out the possibility that officials in the British delegation had received them. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "My understanding is that the Prime Minister didn't receive a USB drive because I think they were a gift for delegates, not for leaders."
Asked if Downing Street staff were given the USBs, he said: "I believe they were part of the gifts for delegates."
Delegations also received mobile phone recharging devices which were also reportedly capable of secretly tapping into emails, text messages and telephone calls.
| But they were Soviet rechargers, so they were as big as a toaster... |
A memorandum was then sent out to G20 members, the Italian daily claimed.
"The USB pen drives and the recharging cables were able to covertly capture computer and mobile phone data," the secret memo said.
The devices were "a poisoned gift" from Vladimir Putin, claimed La Stampa, the Turin-based daily.
"They were Trojan horses designed to obtain information from computers and cell phones," the paper said.
The investigations into the alleged spying devices were ongoing, the reports said. It was not known if every foreign delegation and head of state had been given the covert spying devices.
But Brussels sources said they were baffled by the allegations and expressed total confidence in the security of devices used by EU delegates, including at the St Petersburg summit.
A diplomat said it would be a "schoolboy error" to put a free memory stick into a computer at such a summit because of obvious security concerns. He said any security-trained diplomat would be alert to such unvetted "freebies".
| You're assuming the average diplomat is as smart as the average school boy. Diplomats should know better about honey traps too, but honey traps still work... |
"These are really funny reports, actually. First of all they have no sources.
| "We killed them." |