Dozens of computers in the Ukrainian prime minister's office and at least 10 of Ukraine's embassies abroad have been infected with a virulent cyber espionage weapon linked to Russia. The cyber attack has also affected embassies in eastern Europe of at least nine countries including Germany, China, Poland and Belgium. Sensitive diplomatic information has been made available to the perpetrators of the attack as a result. News of the aggressive campaign comes as tensions between Russia and the west over Ukraine are running high: punitive economic sanctions enacted against Moscow by US and EU officials in recent days have been met with reprisals from the Kremlin. A Russian troop build-up on the Ukrainian border has continued apace.



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The diplomatic infections were revealed partly in data compiled by the online security firm Symantec and partly by intelligence sources contacted by the Financial Times. They are the latest evidence of the spread and penetration of the Snake malware. It is also known as Ouroboros, the tail-swallowing serpent of Greek mythology. Security and military analysts told the FT earlier this year they believed Snake to be a programme used by hackers linked to the Russian government. Analysis then indicated that Ukraine was the likely primary target of Snake – an operation of a sophistication and dexterity that experts believed could only be executed by an extremely well-resourced, state-backed group controlled by a military or intelligence authority. Read MoreChina originates 35%of 'nuclear bomb' cyber attacks Cyber security experts believe Snake to be the successor malware to a cyber weapon used successfully to attack the Pentagon in 2008. Officials described it at the time as the worst breach of US military computers. According to Symantec, in a report produced for clients on Thursday, 60 computers in "the office of the prime minister of a former Soviet Union member country" were infected with Snake in a campaign that began in May 2012. It is still ongoing. According to senior intelligence officials of Nato member states who spoke on condition of anonymity, that country is Ukraine. Those officials say Russia has been waging a sophisticated and aggressive digital espionage campaign against Kiev that has directly fed into its handling and responses to the crisis. More from the Financial Times:

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Since the existence of Snake was first publicised earlier this year, analysts have built up a detailed picture of the way it is used as a cyber weapon.