The Balance of Power in Cyberspace – What it Means for UK Business

20 May The Balance of Power in Cyberspace – What it Means for UK Business

As strategic rivals increasingly seek to use cyberspace as a form of tech warfare, BFPG is exploring what this means for UK plc and for UK national security. In this piece Senior Research Fellow Professor Victoria Baines provides a primer on some of the key threats cyber warfare may pose.

What has the tech trade war to do with the cybersecurity of your business? More than you might think.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced that it had been the victim of a cyber-attack, in which compromise of third-party software exposed the payroll data of hundreds of thousands of serving and former military personnel. Along with the MoD, SSCL lists the Metropolitan Police Service and the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) among its clients. The latest attack on the Ministry of Defence is a salutary reminder of the prevalence and impact of compromise of IT supply chains. As I have written elsewhere, supply chain assurance is now a vital component of cybersecurity.

While the defence secretary refused in the Commons to name those responsible – perhaps because the investigation is in too early a stage to make a positive attribution – the suggestion that it was a state-led, or otherwise state-sponsored, attack by China has been widely reported in the media. This is a reasonable suspicion, as China has form for this kind of attack. In March of this year, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) attributed the targeting of parliamentarians’ emails in 2021 to APT31, a China state-affiliated actor. Another, unnamed, China state-affiliated actor has been assessed by the NCSC as likely to have been responsible for compromising systems at the UK Electoral Commission in 2021 and 2022. In response, the NCSC has published guidance for high-risk individuals, political organisations, and organisations coordinating elections, under the banner Defending Democracy. In what is shaping up to be an election year, state-sponsored interference could have dramatic consequences, especially where this takes the form of voter manipulation through social media disinformation, or attempts…