Russia bid to bug No 10 aides with Trojan horse gifts: Free phone chargers and USB drives at G20 summit were plot to tap into secrets



The revelation came after Germany's secret service investigated the devices

It warned that they were 'trojan horses' capable of fishing for information



Warnings have gone out to every government that received them



Security chiefs have thwarted an audacious attempt by Russian spies to steal information from the heart of Downing Street.

Mobile phone chargers and USB drives given to David Cameron’s staff as well as other foreign delegates at the G20 summit in Russia were ‘Trojan horses’ capable of sending data back to the Kremlin.

The devices contained bugs that could apparently capture valuable data from phones and computers.

Vladimir Putin welcomes David Cameron for the G20 summit - but were phone charger gifts at the event actually spying devices?

Downing Street confirmed last night that intelligence advisers warned No 10 staff not to use the gadgets because they suspected a plot by Russian security services

Downing Street confirmed last night that intelligence advisers warned No 10 staff not to use the gadgets because they suspected a plot by Russian security services.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman denied that Mr Cameron was given one of the items, but senior sources confirmed that they were handed to his aides.

Controversial charges: It's claimed that the Russians gave world leaders devices that could read data (stock image)

According to reports in the Italian press, the German secret services discovered that the gadgets, given to delegates at the meeting of world leaders in St Petersburg last month, were able to retrieve data for use by the Russian secret services.

The G20 conference took place in a climate of great diplomatic tension between Russia and the West. Only weeks before, the Kremlin had granted asylum to fugitive Edward Snowden, wanted for leaking security information about US surveillance to the Guardian.

At the same time, the US and France were at loggerheads with Russia over intervention in Syria.

The alarm was apparently first raised by EU President Herman Van Rompuy, who was suspicious of the Russians’ gifts. All participating governments were urged to ‘take every possible precaution’.

Mr Cameron’s spokesman said: ‘My understanding is that the Prime Minister didn’t receive a USB drive.’

But a senior Whitehall source said: ‘No one is naïve about gifts that are handed out like this. We’re not going to go around publicly accusing the Russians of spying but no one who was given one of these devices will have used it.

‘No 10 staff get routine security briefings before summits like this and are warned to be alive to attempts to access their phones.’

Who knows what: Senator Dianne Feinstein, who is the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has called for a review of all spying programs after world leaders found out they were subject to NSA protocols The National Security Agency (NSA) headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland: The government agency has allegedly been spying on European leaders

Downing Street staff are ordered not to take their personal mobile phones and iPhones on foreign trips. Instead, they are issued with specially encrypted BlackBerrys.

The plot was the most brazen by a foreign power since Chinese intelligence targeted Michael Jacobs, a climate change adviser to Gordon Brown, with a ‘honey trap’ during a trip to China in 2008.



After receiving the attentions of a glamorous female intelligence operative in a nightclub, Mr Jacobs realised he had lost his BlackBerry.

The new allegations were made by the Italian newspapers La Stampa and Corriere della Sera, quoting EU diplomatic sources.

‘Early analysis showed the USB drive and mobile phone charging cables gifted by the Russians to be Trojan horses – instruments capable of capturing data from computers and mobile phones,’ sources told Corriere della Sera.

Russia’s spymasters have already benefited from global secrets pouring in from Western whistleblowers.