THE Ministry of Defence is investigating a major breach in security amid claims that all e-mail traffic from a number of RAF stations has been sent to a Russian internet server.

The e-mails were allegedly diverted to the Russian sender by a worm virus that entered the MoD systems 12 days ago bringing down computers and blocking e-mail communications across the military.

The allegations have been relayed to Mark Pritchard, a Conservative MP, by an official who is concerned that the MoD is failing to take cybersecurity seriously.

Pritchard said the official “told me he could not say whether there was any evidence of active Russian involvement but that e-mail traffic from some RAF stations was sent to a Russian internet server”.

An RAF source said the virus “originated from the former eastern bloc” and said forces security experts were surprised at its sophistication.

The virus affected at least 24 RAF bases and caused damage to the computer systems of 75% of Royal Navy ships, including the aircraft carrier Ark Royal.

The RAF stations affected included those from which fighter aircraft have been scrambled to counter Russian bombers testing British air defences.

The MoD said it was investigating the virus but had no knowledge of any e-mails being sent to a Russian server. It refused to say whether the investigation was looking at Russia as a possible source of the virus, and denied that any secure systems were affected.

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