Russia-linked hackers want to ‘destroy’ UK, Tory minister warns

Britain is facing cyber threats from Russia-aligned groups who want to “to disrupt or destroy” critical infrastructure, senior Tory minister Oliver Dowden has warned.

The Cabinet Office minister used a speech in Belfast to say Russia hackers are “ideologically motivated, rather than financially motivated” and have begun to target the UK this year.

Mr Dowden confirmed that the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is issuing an “official threat notice” to operators of the UK’s critical national infrastructure.

The minister revealed that in the last few months several Russia-aligned groups have focused on the UK – with Mr Dowden saying they were the “cyber equivalent of the Wagner group”.

“These adversaries are ideologically motivated, rather than financially motivated,” he said, adding that the lack of any restraint makes them “particularly concerning”.

“Disclosing this threat is not something we do lightly,” Mr Dowden said. “But we believe it is necessary ... if we want these companies to understand the current risk they face, and take action to defend themselves and the country.”

The NCSC alert points to what it calls the “emerging risk posed by state-aligned adversaries” in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with officials recommending that organisations “act now” to protect against future attacks.

Mr Dowden warned that cyber security is closely linked to economic prosperity as he unveils new measures to support businesses “on the front line of our cyber defences”.

He used the address at the CyberUK conference to acknowledge that more needs to be done to improve salaries to attract cyber security experts into the civil service.

Mr Dowden announced plans to set “specific and ambitious cyber resilience targets” for all critical national infrastructure sectors to meet within two years, as well as moves to bring private sector businesses working on critical infrastructure into regulations.

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He said: “A bricks-and-mortar business wouldn’t survive if it left the back door open to criminals every night. Equally in today’s world, businesses can’t afford... to leave their digital back door open to cyber crooks and hackers.”

The annual conference run by the government also heard from the head of the National Cyber Security Centre, Lindy Cameron, who warned of the “dramatic rise of China as a technology superpower”.

Ms Cameron told Sky News on Wednesday: “What I’m saying about China is that China is, as we say in the integrated review, an epoch-defining threat.”

She added: “The scale and pace of their ambition and technology is something that all of the people here at the conference need to take seriously and think about how it is that we build security into our future technology to keep our people safe.”

The government also announced new cyber security measures, known as GovAssure and run from the Cabinet Office, to protect the UK’s critical IT systems.

Concerns have mounted in recent years about the danger posed by cyber attacks. Only in January, an attack on Royal Mail caused severe disruption to parts of its services.