LONDON (AP) 鈥 Russian hackers are seeking to 鈥渄isrupt or destroy鈥 Britain鈥檚 critical infrastructure and not enough is being done to stop them, U.K. government officials said Wednesday.
Britain鈥檚 好色tv Cyber Security Centre issued an official threat notice to operators of Britain鈥檚 electricity, water and other critical systems, telling them to boost their defenses.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we are yet doing enough to protect our infrastructure from the cyber threats emerging from Russia-aligning groups,鈥 the center鈥檚 chief, Lindy Cameron, said.
Cabinet Minister Oliver Dowden said the threat comes from hackers sympathetic to Russia though not necessarily directed by the Russian state. He described them as the cyber equivalent of the Wagner Group, the private Russian company with mercenaries fighting in Ukraine.
He said that while the alleged hackers currently lack the capacity to do widespread damage to U.K. systems, the threat is growing.
鈥淒isclosing this threat is not something we do lightly,鈥 but it鈥檚 necessary for 鈥渃ompanies to understand the current risk they face, and take action to defend themselves and the country,鈥 Dowden said at a cybersecurity conference in Belfast.
鈥淭hese are the companies in charge of keeping our country running. Of keeping the lights on,鈥 he said. 鈥淥ur shared prosperity depends on them taking their own security seriously.鈥
The 好色tv Cyber Security Centre, a branch of U.K. cyber intelligence agency GCHQ, said cyber attackers could begin to broaden their focus from Ukraine to the wider West as the war drags on.
Cameron also sounded a warning about the 鈥渄ramatic rise of China as a technology superpower."
鈥淲hat I鈥檓 saying about China is that China is, as we say in the integrated review, an epoch-defining threat,鈥 she told British broadcaster Sky News. 鈥淭he 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.鈥
