The PM scrapped the email account in 2022 while leader of the opposition after being informed by security services his email may have been compromised, a new book claims
Keir Starmer was forced to ditch his “dangerously obvious” personal email address after a suspected Russian hack, a new book claims.
The Prime Minister abandoned the account in 2022 while leader of the opposition after being informed by security services his email may have been compromised by Kremlin-linked hackers.
According to a new book on Mr Starmer’s rise to No10 – Get In – a senior member of his team, Jill Cuthbertson, told staff not to email the Labour leader under any circumstance.
It added the Labour leader then changed his email and added two-factor authentication, which requires multiple ID checks to access emails and data. It prevents cyber criminals from accessing the information – even if they have your password.
Mr Starmer was reportedly told there was no evidence emails had been published but was given no guarantees sensitive data had not been stolen. A source told the book’s authors the original email address had been “dangerously obvious” and the incident happened just months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
No10 declined to comment on the claims on Monday.
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In the same year it was reported the ex-PM Liz Truss’s personal phone was compromised in a hack discovered during the Tory leadership race when she ran against Rishi Sunak.
The Mail on Sunday claimed at the time spies suspected of working for the Russian leader Vladimir Putin were behind the hack and downloaded messages. According to the newspaper, one source claimed the phone was so heavily compromised it was “locked safe inside a secure government location” at the time.
Four years earlier Boris Johnson, who was then Foreign Secretary in Theresa May’s government, was targeted by a Russian prank caller pretending to be the PM of Armenia. During the excruciating 18-minute audio Mr Johnson discussed the UK-Russian relations, Syria, and the Salisbury poisoning in 2018.