Social media platform WhatsApp on Thursday accused Russian authorities of trying to block the service as part of an effort to exert more control over the country’s internet sphere. “The Russian government attempted to fully block WhatsApp in an effort to drive people to a state-owned surveillance app,” WhatsApp said in a statement on X. “Trying to isolate over 100 million users from private and secure communication is a backwards step and can only lead to less safety for people in Russia,” the Meta-owned company said. The move against WhatsApp follows reports of renewed difficulties with Telegram, the most popular messaging platform in Russia, after media watchdog Roskomnadzor announced new restrictions against the company earlier this week. Roskomnadzor last year accused Telegram and WhatsApp of violating Russian law by facilitating terrorists and scammers.  Following its all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia banned as “extremist” Facebook and Instagram, which also are owned by Meta. In a post earlier this week, Telegram founder Pavel Durov accused the Russian authorities of trying to “force its citizens to switch to a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship.” The Kremlin has promoted the home-grown messenger service Max as an alternative to foreign platforms. But internet experts have criticized the Russian app for providing a backdoor to Moscow’s security services in what they see as an attempt by the Kremlin to secure further control over Russians’ private lives. Asked whether WhatsApp would be allowed to remain in Russia, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday said it depended on whether Meta “would enter into dialogue with the Russian authorities.”  “If the corporation sticks to an uncompromising position and, I would say, shows itself unready to align with Russian legislation, then there is no chance,” Peskov told state news agency TASS.

LONDON — Nigel Farage’s new cost-cutting tsar has taken aim at “pathetic” questioning about efforts to save money at one of Reform UK’s most high-profile councils. Richard Tice, who became head of the populist party’s Elon Musk-inspired DOGE unit (Department of Local Government Efficiency) last month, declined to confirm whether he has given up on seeking a stalled data-sharing agreement with Kent County Council. He instead advised POLITICO to “grow up.” Tice’s predecessor, Zia Yusuf, had hoped DOGE would use councils’ data to audit their finances and root out “waste” after Reform won control of 10 English authorities — including Kent — in May. The victories put Farage’s populist party in control of public services for the first time, and made councils a test bed for how Reform might run Britain if it wins the 2029 general election. However, DOGE’s attempts to access internal data — that is not already public or available through freedom of information (FOI) requests — have not yet been resolved. The national unit still has no data-sharing agreement with Kent, which is using its own “DOLGE” unit at a local level. Asked about this during a wider interview with POLITICO, Tice appeared to suggest Reform had pivoted to other methods. He said a data-sharing agreement was not “the biggest thing” and that “there’s other ways we can get data.” He added: “Actually we just said, you know what, don’t waste your time. What you guys [the media] forget is that time is money, and if someone’s going to waste my time there, we’ll go around and we’ll find it in another way, right? And we’re very good at this stuff.” Tice then declined to answer a question seeking to “nail down” whether he has now given up on a data-sharing agreement. He replied: “It’s pathetic nailing on one point. It’s just pathetic. Grow up. Seriously, seriously. Focus on the big issues. Every council is a flagship council. Why are you guys obsessing about one little piece, or one council out of 13?” The Financial Times reported on Oct. 24 that DOGE had carried out no audit work at any of Reform’s councils in England. ‘WE NEVER SAID IT WAS EASY’ Tice said he will present a six-month review of Reform’s cost-cutting efforts on Nov. 17. “Put that date in your diary, you will not want to miss it. Blockbuster stuff,” he said. He also pointed to a press conference he gave on Sept. 1, in which he said taxpayers were being “ripped off” by fees charged by managers in the Local Government Pension Scheme, totaling “over a billion pounds of overpayment.” Reform said in June that “software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors” would “audit local government spending” at every Reform-controlled council. Asked about data-sharing with Kent, Tice said: “In the nicest possible way, you in the media obsess about an individual little point. You don’t focus on the big picture. The whole point of DOGE is it’s about the philosophy of saving money. Nigel Farage’s new cost-cutting tsar has taken aim at “pathetic” questioning about efforts to save money at one of Reform UK’s most high-profile councils. | Mark Kerrison/Getty Images “Every Reform councilor, they are tasked with looking for ways where they can spot savings — small, medium and large — and this philosophy of saving money starts in the councils. “In a sense the biggest thing is actually not how you extract data out of the computer software and find out who’s spending what on where. Actually the bigger piece is what contracts are being negotiated? What’s the duration of them? Where are the break clauses? Who’s negotiated it? And re-looking at everything as they come up for renewal.” Yusuf told POLITICO in July that he believed there would be an “immune response from the Blob” in resisting his requests. Tice said: “Many people are being very helpful, and we’re very grateful, and there are many people who are being a pain in the arse. And we will dig in, and sometimes they will win and block us, and sometimes we will win. “The great thing is we’re cutting our teeth, and we’re learning fast, but I am very happy with progress. I’m an impatient guy.” Asked if being in control of public services had been harder than Reform thought, Tice said: “We never said it was easy. We always knew it would be hard, because we always talked about the Blob. “But I do think if you guys just obsess about ‘well you haven’t achieved that over there in that little corner, and therefore you’ve failed’ — frankly, it’s pathetic, and you guys have got to grow up.” A Kent County Council spokesperson said: “Since June all work on local government efficiency in Kent has been led and delivered by Kent County Council’s DOLGE team, sitting within the Council’s Cabinet. “Officers at KCC continue to work closely and positively with the new administration to ensure that they achieve their policy aims and the priorities of the Council’s new Strategic Framework. “Subject to governance, legal compliance and need, the administration will utilise support where deemed necessary and appropriate from the Reform UK DOGE to make savings that benefit Kent residents. At this point in time, there is no data sharing agreement, formal agreements, contracts, or memoranda of understanding in place between KCC with the national DOGE team”.

LONDON — Hackers and hostile states will face repercussions such as retaliatory cyber attacks for targeting U.K. institutions, Britain’s security minister has warned. Speaking to POLITICO at the British Library — which has not yet fully-recovered from a devastating 2023 cyber-attack by criminal ransomware group Rysida — Dan Jarvis said that there will be “consequences and implications” for attacks on other U.K. assets. Asked directly who Britain will target with its own state-backed “offensive cyber” capabilities, the minister said: “Let me put it this way: If you are a cyber criminal and you think that you can attack a U.K.-based institution without there being repercussions from doing so, think again.” He added that it is his role to “make sure that people don’t think they can just get away with doing this and that there will be consequences and implications for them.” It comes after the government announced that it would be banning the public sector from paying ransoms to criminals after they have been subject to a cyber attack. For many years Britain did not publicly advertise its offensive cyber capabilities, which now range from disrupting online activity to actively destroying and taking over online networks. In 2013 it was reported that Britain had become the first country to admit that it uses offensive cyber attacks against other nations. ARMS RACE Today, the U.K. is actively ramping up its cyber arsenal not only to defend the public and private sector from attacks, but to launch them against adversaries. May’s strategic defense review put new emphasis on Britain’s offensive capabilities, with the announcement of a £1 billion investment into a new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command, which will co-ordinate attacks alongside the National Cyber Force. Jarvis told POLITICO that he could not divulge the “particular technical capabilities that we will seek to use” but highlighted the work of the National Crime Agency, which last year revealed its role in compromising the entire criminal enterprise of LockBit — a prolific ransomware group responsible for billions in worldwide ransom payments and recovery costs. “Where there are attempts, we will seek to do everything that we possibly can to ensure that those individuals or groups are held accountable and understand that there are repercussions as a consequence of their actions,” he added. Artificial intelligence is already a tool that is supercharging the scale and efficiency of cyber criminals and hostile states, with warnings that this could extend to terrorist activity in the coming years.  Jarvis said that the government is looking at how Britain uses technology like AI to “exploit to our advantage,” acknowledging an “arms race” in the “extraordinary rate of technological advancement” in modern threats. THE INDIA QUESTION The vast majority of Britain’s cyber threats comes from Russia, either from its state capability or its aligned criminal gangs which carry out attacks against targets abroad. Threats are also posed by the other three of the U.K.’s “big four” international adversaries: Iran, China and North Korea. However, recent years have seen international concerns raised over the emergence of the hacking capability of individuals and groups based in countries which are allies of Britain. These are often referred to as “hack-for-hire” companies who offer their services internationally, with notable examples based overseas, including in India. The government of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi — who is visiting the U.K. for a four-day visit — itself came under fire in 2021 over allegations of phone hacking and surveillance linked to an Israeli spyware company. Asked what the U.K. was doing to combat hacking originating in countries such as India, Jarvis told POLITICO that the U.K. has a “very good, close working relationship with India” and U.K. ministers are working closely with officials, including India’s national security advisor, to make sure the two countries’ approaches are “aligned in order to crack down on fraudulent activity where it happens in either in India or the U.K.” “We’ve got a good, strong, constructive security relationship with India,” he said, adding: “We will continue to invest in that relationship for the long term, because we think it serves our national interest and their national interest well.”