Sellafield denies claims site hacked by cyber groups linked to Russia and China

Sellafield has denied claims by The Guardian that its systems have been hacked by groups linked to China and Russia.

In an investigation published by the newspaper online, it said it had discovered that breaches dated back to 2015 when it was realised malware has been installed into networks at the site.

But a Sellafield Ltd statement said: “We have no records or evidence to suggest that Sellafield Ltd networks have been successfully attacked by state-actors in the way described by the Guardian.

“Our monitoring systems are robust and we have a high degree of confidence that no such malware exists on our system.

“This was confirmed to the Guardian well in advance of publication, along with rebuttals to a number of other inaccuracies in their reporting.

“We have asked the Guardian to provide evidence related to this alleged attack so we can investigate. They have failed to provide this.

“We take cyber security extremely seriously at Sellafield.

“All of our systems and servers have multiple layers of protection.

“Critical networks that enable us to operate safely are isolated from our general IT network, meaning an attack on our IT system would not penetrate these.”