'Thousands' of MPs and police officers hit by password hack linked to Russia

The passwords of thousands of British politicians, senior police officers and other top officials have been stolen and traded by hackers, it has been reported.

The login details of education secretary Justine Greening and business secretary Greg Clark are believed to be some of those that were reportedly exchanged by Russian hackers.

The head of IT at the Foreign Office, the director-general of the Department for Exiting the European Union and former detective chief inspector Andy Redwood were also reportedly affected.

According to the Times, two lists of stolen login details were available to buy on Russian-speaking hacking sites, and included the details of 1,000 British MPs and parliamentary staff, 7,000 police employees and over 1,000 Foreign Office staff.

The lists were later made available for free.

The three most commonly used passwords used by the compromised accounts of police officers were “police”, “password” and “police1”.

The majority of the credentials were reportedly seized as part of a major hack on LinkedIn in 2012, in which millions of passwords were exposed.

LinkedIn users were advised to change their passwords in the wake of the attack, not only on the professional networking site but across other platforms and services too.

The warning was repeated in 2016 when it emerged that the stolen details were being traded online.

The National Crime and Security Centre has confirmed that it is re-issuing its cyber security advice to government departments in light of the report.