UK plans to invest €5 billion in virtual defense sector

The United Kingdom announced that it intends to invest 5 billion euros (about R$317 billion at current prices) to improve the digital security of its region. Among the plans is the creation of a cyber force to be used as a response to attacks.

With the continued rise of cyber scams, many countries are implementing digital security as a vital part of their infrastructure, which includes investing as usual on other fronts.

In an interview for the website WireBritain’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said the country was planning not only to be prepared for threats, but also to launch retaliatory strikes.

Cyberforce and its counter-attacks will target critical sectors such as telecommunications operators and power plants in countries that do not have very good relations with the United Kingdom, such as Russia, China and North Korea. The secretary states that he wants the country to be one of the few in the world capable of launching this type of attack, thus discouraging future attempts at attacks.

The new UK Digital Defense Center will be built in Samlesbury, Lancashire, and will be jointly run by the Ministry of Defense and the UK Communications Centre. Wallace believes the new agency will be fully operational by 2030.

This approach is the same approach that the United States has recently begun to take in response to the continuing ransomware attacks in the country.

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still in interview for website WireIn , Ben Wallace revealed that the UK is being targeted by cyber attacks on a daily basis by other countries, so a more aggressive response is one of the entitlements stipulated in international relations laws.

One of the examples of retaliatory attacks cited by the Secretary of Defense are operations to destabilize servers used in virtual hijack attacks (ransomware) or other types of viruses. Wallace cites the WannaCry malware incident, which put the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) servers in serious trouble for weeks.

It is important to note that this retaliatory approach is nothing new to the UK. Since 2018, the country has been launching attacks against Islamic State, pedophiles and foreign cybercriminal groups. However, the £5 billion investment clearly shows that the country’s rulers want to protect themselves even more in the digital world.

Source: bleeding computer, Wire