How will the MoD's new cyber command unit work?

"The keyboard has become a weapon of war," said Defence Secretary John Healey. Over the past two years, the Ministry of Defence has been subjected to 90,000 cyberattacks associated with hostile states like Russia and China, the ministry revealed yesterday: more than double the number in the previous two years.

This "intensifying" level of cyberwarfare "requires us to step up our capacity to defend", said Healey at the UK military's cyber HQ at MoD Corsham in Wiltshire yesterday, as he outlined plans to invest more than £1 billion in artificial intelligence and a "hacking army", as part of the government's long-awaited defence review.

Healey pledged to give the Armed Forces more power to actively target hostile states, including a new cyber command unit to coordinate offensive capabilities. "Ways of warfare are rapidly changing," he said, and the UK is "facing daily cyberattacks on this new front line".

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What did the commentators say?

For the last five years, the National Cyber Force has "conducted hacking operations" for the military, as part of a "joint venture" between the MoD and GCHQ (the UK's intelligence, cyber and security agency), said The Telegraph. But Healey has announced a new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command unit to work alongside the NCF, which would unite all the UK's cyber personnel currently working across GCHQ, the MoD and other government units to "fight enemies on the web".

The new unit will also "oversee a £1 billion investment in upgraded targeting systems": an AI network that would connect all three branches of the Armed Forces and filter the massive amounts of data generated, "enabling quicker decisions on the battlefield". This "digital targeting web", to start operating in 2027, is known as a "kill web".

While the specific details of Britain's "offensive cyber capabilities are a secret", its vulnerabilities are less so. There is currently a "significant gap" between the threat and the government's ability to defend against it. "Crumbling government computer systems have been outpaced by cybercriminals", a Commons public accounts committee report warned this month, and the government is "lacking experts with cyber skills".

When asked whether the MoD was bolstering its capacity to attack hostile states, Healey answered: "Yes." That's the first time a minister has been "so explicit about launching a cyber­attack on another country", said The Times. They have "never before confirmed" such attacks – although they've been "open" about targeting terrorist groups. Healey "fell short of admitting Britain was fighting a cyberwar with Russia", but he did admit the "intensity" of Russia's cyberattacks was "stepping up".

One reason behind the rising numbers of attacks is that the military is "getting better at spotting the attempts", said Sky News. But the attacks are also "becoming more sophisticated".

Still, some experts are "sceptical" about the new unit, said the Financial Times. "Obviously, electronic warfare and cyber are critical," said one serving reserve officer anonymously. "But I'm not sure the way to cut through bureaucracy is to create more organisations and layers."

The new "kill web" aims to "knit together data" and "translate it into better intelligence about what an adversary is doing", but "on a larger scale than current software". But defence officials "insisted that no single system or company would provide the whole picture". One described it as a "system of systems".

What next?

The defence review, announced by Labour last year, will be published on Monday – and unlike with previous reviews, "military chiefs have been blocked from talking about it in public", said The Times. But a "chunk of it" will focus on autonomy and cyber. The MoD has already said that promising recruits will be "fast-tracked into specialist roles to tackle cyber threats".

Of course, there is always a risk that a cyberattack against Russia could "provoke a more devastating response". But Moscow's attacks have been "so prolific" that the MoD is redirecting resources to strike enemies "before they have a chance to strike first".