According to a former Russian spy who sought asylum in the United States last year, Russian intelligence assets compromised the British Visa Processing Center in Moscow. The asset, who has only been named as “Vadim” for safety reasons, was informed by a member of Russian intelligence before he fled Russia that they had taken control of the center’s CCTV system and was able to map out the inside of the center, before compromising and mapping out the network structure of the Visa processing center. According to Vadim, he was tasked with assisting with processing visa applications for two assets they intended to send to Britain. The timing falls in line with the timeline of the two men sent to England to poison former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury. While there have always been concerns over cyber-attacks on government systems that could lead to real-world acts of terror or physical attacks, this case clearly illustrates the reality of those fears.
