British Defence Secretary Liam Fox has revealed that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and other government departments are under sustained cyber attacks.
Fox said last year the MoD faced over 1,000 serious cyber attacks from cyber criminals and foreign intelligence agencies aiming to steal data and disable services. Fox said that "across the core defence networks there were an average of over a million security alerts every day".
Last week, the Guardian reported that the UK is developing a cyber-weapons programme with attacking capabilities. Now, Fox has said that the country may need to do more than what is envisaged by last year’s Strategic Defence and Security Review to counter growing cyber threats.
"Between 2009 and 2010, security incidents more than doubled," he said: "Was this in Afghanistan? No. This was in cyberspace and the target was the MoD. I and my senior colleagues are routinely alerted to incidents that could have had severe consequences if they’d not been stopped.
"Our systems are targeted by criminals, foreign intelligence services and other malicious actors seeking to exploit our people, corrupt our systems and steal information.
"To give you an idea of the challenge, last year we in the MoD blocked and investigated over 1,000 potentially serious attacks."
Fox said that the cost to the UK economy of cyber crime is estimated to be £27bn a year and rising. He said, "These are attacks against the whole fabric of our society."
"There is no Maginot Line in cyber space … our national intellectual property in defence and security industries is at risk from a systematic marauding. Not only could it severely affect the future success of British industry, our economic advantage, and the country’s financial recovery, but also directly impacts upon our national security today."
Frank Coggrave, general manager EMEA, Guidance Software, said this issue is only likely to get worse as, "there is increased computerisation of government services, increased connectivity, and increased network capabilities in weaponry and communication systems."
"And as attacks change so must defences, since predictable, static and old-style methods will not future-proof against today’s threats, never mind tomorrow’s. We must come to terms with the fact that cybercriminals are becoming smarter and attacks are increasingly evasive and sophisticated," Coggrave added.
"The key to a successful defence strategy is imagination, flexibility, rapid reaction and diligence, and reinvigorating new strategies to reinforce defences as hackers change their methods of attack to find your weak point. Cyber defence is not about reacting to yesterday’s threats and building out of date Maginot Lines, but about pre-empting the threats of tomorrow, and thinking five steps ahead," he concluded.
