Security News > 2021 > October > UK plans to invest £5 billion in retaliatory cyber-attacks
The United Kingdom has revealed plans to invest £5 billion in bolstering national cybersecurity that includes creating a "Cyber Force" unit to perform retaliatory attacks.
As the UK's Secretary of State for Defense Ben Wallace points out in an interview with The Telegraph, Britain isn't just looking to strengthen its stance against threats, but also to build up its capacity to launch retaliatory assaults.
As Mr. Wallace revealed, some foreign states are waging cyber warfare on Britain on a daily basis, so responding to this aggressively is within the rights that underpin international laws.
A notable incident that came up as an example of how catastrophic these attacks can be comes from 2017, when the WannaCry worm crippled parts of the NHS. The Secretary of Defense sees this as an critical event but underlines that Britain hasn't had a tier-one cyberattack that caused significant catastrophe yet.
Creating the National Cyber Force center is meant to help keep things this way, acting as a deterrent for those eyeing Britain as a lucrative target candidate.
One thing to note is that none of the above is novel in the sense that Britain has been engaging in offensive cyber campaigns against the Islamic State, pedophiles, and various foreign hacking groups since at least 2018.