Britain and its allies risk losing a conflict in cyberspace against adversaries such as Russia unless citizens, corporations and governments treat cybersecurity with much greater urgency, a British spy chief said yesterday.
Anne Keast-Butler, director of the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), warned that Moscow is “relentlessly targeting critical infrastructure, democratic processes, supply chains and public trust” in Britain and Europe.
She accused Russia of stealing technology, and plotting sabotage and assassination attempts, a prereleased speech that she was to deliver at a World War II code breaking center near London showed.
Photo: Reuters
Keast-Butler said that rapid advances in artificial intelligence mean that “the ground beneath our feet is shifting,” and there is a “narrowing window for the UK and allies to stay ahead” of countries such as China, a science and technology “superpower.”
There must be an effort “from boardrooms to living rooms” to make cybersecurity “10 times more urgent,” she said, according to extracts released in advance by GCHQ.
It is the latest in a string of warnings from Western spies and intelligence experts that Russia is stepping up hostile activity in a “gray zone” that falls just below the threshold of war.
In the past few months, authorities in countries including Sweden, Poland, Denmark and Norway have alleged that hackers linked to Russia targeted their critical infrastructure, including power plants and dams.
The head of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, Richard Horne, last month warned that hostile states including Russia, China and Iran are behind the most serious cyberattacks the kingdom faces.
Such attacks could increase dramatically if Britain becomes involved in an international conflict, Horne said.
Keast-Butler stressed the importance of international partnerships.
She was to deliver the annual GCHQ director’s lecture speech at Bletchley Park, a manor house 72km northwest of London where hundreds of mathematicians, cryptographers, crossword puzzlers, chess masters and other experts worked to crack Nazi Germany’s supposedly unbreakable secret codes during World War II.
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
RSS