UK vows to 'strike back' against cyberattacks

7 years ago

UK vows to 'strike back' against cyberattacks

The UK will defend itself in cyberspace and "strike back" against those who try to harm the country, Chancellor Philip Hammond has said, as he announced a new national cyber security strategy.

The strategy, running from 2016 to 2021, will be supported by a £1.9bn investment made in last year's Defence and Security Review. The amount is more than double the period covered by the previous strategy.

A "significant" chunk of the cash will go to "taking the fight to those who threaten Britain in cyberspace and relentlessly pursuing anyone who persists in attacking us".

He warned of "rogue states" seeking to target the UK's infrastructure, including power grid networks and air traffic systems.

Mr Hammond said many reports were blaming one nation for cyberattacks, and while he didn't name the country - saying simply "answers on a postcard to No 11 please" - he was clearly pointing at Russia.

His comments come after the MI5 director general, Andrew Parker, warned of increasing Russian aggression - in particular cyberattacks. The claims have been dismissed as baseless by the Kremlin.

The attacks disrupted access to dozens of websites

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Recent months have seen high-profile hacks, including of the Democratic National Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency. Both have been linked by US officials to Russia.

A Russian group is also thought to be behind an attack which took TV5MONDE, a French TV station, off air.

GCHQ intervened to prevent an attack from the same hacking group in the UK, targeting the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky, in 2015.

:: MI5 chief in warning over 'increasingly aggressive' Russia

Speaking at a Microsoft conference in central London on Tuesday, Mr Hammond said: "If we do not have the ability to respond in cyberspace to an attack which takes down our power networks, leaving us in darkness, or hits our air traffic
control system, grounding our planes, we would be left with the impossible choice of turning the other cheek and ignoring the devastating consequences or resorting to a military response.

"That is a choice we do not want to face and a choice we do not want to leave as a legacy to our successors.

"That is why we need to develop a fully functioning and operational cyber counter-attack capability."

In a sign of the chaos cyberattacks can cause, three NHS hospitals had to cancel operations on Tuesday after a "malicious" attack on the computer system of the North Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Trust.

Mr Hammond la!d out the three key planks of the strategy: defence, deter and develop.

Defence involves protecting critical national infrastructure in areas such as energy and transport, as well as Government websites, with automated techniques.

Mr Hammond said authorities had closed down a number of scams using Government details, including one where 50,000 spoof emails a day were sent from a taxrefund.gov.uk address.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon recently confirmed that the UK was using cyber weapons as part of the battle for Mosul against Islamic State. But the cyber security strategy goes one step further, promising that the UK will retaliate against cyberattacks.

The "develop" strand of the strategy involves developing talent among students and researchers, as well as researching new cyber security technologies.

Mr Hammond said: "Britain is already an acknowledged global leader in cyber security thanks to our investment of over £860m in the last parliament, but we must now keep up with the scale and pace of threats we face."

In 2015, the Government's National Security Strategy identified cyber security as a 'tier 1' risk to the UK, the same level of risk as terrorism and global instability.