The UK government has been accused of endangering diplomatic relations with Belgium after its “exceptional” refusal to cooperate with an inquiry into GCHQ’s hacking of Belgacom, the country’s biggest telecoms company.
For at least two years ending in 2013, the British intelligence service was spying within the state-owned company’s networks on the instruction of UK ministers, according to leaks from a judicial inquiry presented to Belgium’s national security council this week.
When asked by the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office to cooperate with the investigation into the hacking, the UK Home office refused, claiming: “The United Kingdom believes that this could jeopardise our sovereignty, security and public order.”
The Belgian inquiry found unambiguous evidence of the British intelligence services’s involvement. The investigation discovered spy software installed remotely on Belgacom’s computers from three internet protocol addresses registered in the UK to front companies.
When Belgian investigators approached GCHQ for help in identifying those behind the IP addresses, it declined to cooperate. The spies, working under the codename Operation Socialist, were said to have targeted the computers of Belgacom employees working in security and maintenance through the use of fake LinkedIn messages. There was a particular focus on the Belgian company’s subsidiary unit, Belgacom International Carrier Services, which handles phone and data traffic in Africa and the Middle East. It was reported that the British espionage operation was also seeking to target communications made between roaming smartphones. The interception could have also provided access to communications at Nato headquarters in Brussels and at key European institutions including the European commission, European parliament, and the European council.
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