Government told to ‘wake up’ to true threat cyber crime poses

Attacks on computer networks and undersea internet cables are a greater threat to the UK than the Blitz during World War II, the National Security Adviser has claimed. Mark Sedwill said the cyber threat “cuts right the way across any definition of national security and indeed any definition of public safety”. He also warned the joint committee on National Security Strategy that the Russian threat has increased at a “greater pace than anticipated” since 2015. Attacks on critical national infrastructure and online fraud costs the economy an estimated £100 billion a year. Mr Sedwill illustrated the devastation that cyber attacks can cause when he told MPs of a small florist near his flat in Battersea, who had suffered two crimes in the space of a week. “One was to smash up their stuff outside, the other of which was a cyber attack on their bank account,” Mr Sedwill added. “The second was the much more difficult one for the police to address.” MPs responded by telling him the Government needs to “wake up” to the true scale of the cyber threat and not to underestimate Russia. Although the “Russian attitude has worsened” towards the West, Mr Sedwill said the Soviet state has a weakness in the number of allies it has. “If you put together the British, French and German defence budgets… it is about twice the Russian defence budget,” he added. “We can`t just compare to our own historic experience.” Mr Sedwill is currently carrying out a National Security Capability Review, which will be released in January. “This exercise is looking at how we can make best use of the resources available to us now against the threat picture,” he said. A Home Office spokesperson said no decisions have been made on any parts of the national security capability review.