Tag Archive for: Hostile

Internet safety laws strengthened to fight Russian and hostile state disinformation


  • Social media platforms will have to proactively look for and remove disinformation from foreign state actors which harms the UK
  • Firms failing to tackle online interference by rogue states face huge fines or being blocked

Social media platforms will have to proactively tackle Russian and other state-sponsored disinformation aimed at undermining the UK under changes ministers are making to new internet safety laws.

Many people are concerned about the threat that malicious state-linked disinformation poses to UK society and democracy, particularly following Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.

The government will table an amendment to link the National Security Bill with the Online Safety Bill – strengthening this landmark and pioneering internet legislation to make the UK the safest place in the world to go online. A new Foreign Interference Offence created by the National Security Bill will be added to the list of priority offences in the Online Safety Bill.

It means social media platforms, search engines and other apps and websites allowing people to post their own content will have a legal duty to take proactive, preventative action to identify and minimise people’s exposure to state-sponsored or state-linked disinformation aimed at interfering with the UK.

This includes tackling material from fake accounts set up by individuals or groups acting on behalf of foreign states to influence democratic or legal processes, such as elections and court proceedings, or spread hacked information to undermine democratic institutions.

Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said:

The invasion of Ukraine has yet again shown how readily Russia can and will weaponise social media to spread disinformation and lies about its barbaric actions, often targeting the very victims of its aggression. We cannot allow foreign states or their puppets to use the internet to conduct hostile online warfare unimpeded.

That’s why we are strengthening our new internet safety protections to make sure social media firms identify and root out state-backed disinformation.

Security Minister Damian Hinds said:

Online information operations are now a core part of state threats activity. The aim can…

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OODA Loop – Labor Day Weekend Ransomware Warnings: U.S warns firms to be on guard against hostile network activity


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Cybercrime and hacking by hostile states demands a ‘Digital Geneva Convention’ – Stewart McDonald MP and Alyn Smith MP


The first iPhone was released less than 15 years ago, boasting 2G internet and the ability to download a four-minute music video in just a few short hours.



Emmanuel Macron wearing a suit and tie standing in front of a crowd


© France’s President Emmanuel Macron changed his phone and number after he was reportedly targeted wit…


At that time, the internet was little more than a collection of blogs and chatrooms and the word ‘ransomware’ was unheard of by all but a small handful of people.

In the few short years since then, human society has undergone one of the most profound and rapid transformations in its history.

Our social existence – from working, shopping and socialising to dating and learning – has increasingly moved online, with each activity leaving a Hansel and Gretel-style trail of data in its wake.

News headlines today feature stories about ‘hack and leak’ operations or ransomware attacks, where hackers paralyse a computer system and hold its information at ransom.

Despite the ubiquity of this digital technology – the sheer volume of the data that we unthinkingly, and often unknowingly, share online and the speed at which it has become ingrained in every aspect of our daily lives, from arranging for food deliveries to organising patient records – international rules and norms governing cyberspace remain too patchy, to the point of rendering them effectively non-existent.

While the anarchy of the early internet was a large part of its appeal, today it represents a significant threat to our security and the global economy.

Indeed, just as we have moved our activities online, so too have hostile states and other malicious actors. Journalists and human rights activists can now be tracked without the need for someone sitting outside their home for hours on end and critical national infrastructure can be brought to its knees without the need for bombs or missiles.

READ MORE: SEPA: 4,000 files stolen in cyber attack on Scotland’s environmental regulator published

This month alone has seen the news dominated by cybercrime – attacks on Microsoft orchestrated by the Chinese state; the hacking and surveillance of the mobile phones of journalists, human rights activists and world leaders; and a series of ransomware attacks…

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Ransomware hackers now bigger cyber threat to UK than hostile states


Criminal hackers carrying out ransomware attacks now represent a bigger risk to UK national security than online espionage by hostile states, Britain’s cyber defence chief will warn on Monday.

Lindy Cameron, chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre — a branch of GCHQ — will accuse Britons of neglecting the threat from ransomware hackers, in a speech to London’s Royal United Services Institute.

While she will describe state-backed cyber activity such as online espionage and the theft of intellectual property as a “malicious strategic threat to the UK’s national interests”, Cameron will say that the “cumulative effect” of Britain’s failure to manage cyber risk is “far more worrying”.

For the “vast majority” of UK citizens and businesses, including suppliers of critical national infrastructure and government services, “the primary key threat is not state actors but cyber criminals”, Cameron will add.

Her warning comes after a worldwide proliferation in ransomware attacks — which typically paralyse a target’s computer networks and data until a payment is made.

Lindy Cameron, head of the National Cyber Security Centre: the primary key threat is not state actors but cyber criminals © Handout

The number of incidents rose by more than 60 per cent to 305m in 2020, according to data from SonicWall. Recent victims include Ireland’s health service, the US’s Colonial Pipeline and JBS, the Brazilian meat processing company, attacks which have focused minds on the risk to critical infrastructure and supply chains.

The White House believes both the Colonial Pipeline and JBS attacks were carried out by criminals based in Russia, and US president Joe Biden is expected to raise the issue during his meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin this week. Biden has indicated he is “open” to a proposal from Putin that Russia would hand over cybercriminals to the US if Washington did the same for Moscow.

Leaders of the G7 countries, who met in Cornwall this weekend, signalled their determination to clamp down on criminal hackers. They pledged in their summit communiqué…

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